Bound
by SilentSpeaker13
Summary: Given to the service of the pharaoh, Yuugi learns young that life can be cruel. Destined for a life of servitude, will Yuugi find true, lasting happiness? Romance/Drama/Adventure, equal parts. Blindshipping. Rated for language and adult themes. R/R Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Okay, here's the prologue and first chapter of _Bound_...honestly I'm a little scared here; it's my first true multi-chap for Yu Gi Oh! but I've already got some more pages than this written, which will hopefully keep the delays between updates to a minimum**

**I hope you guys like the story, and p.s., while I _do _love the reviews/faves for the ego-stroking, they're also really helpful to knowing if I'm on the right path or screwing up, so if it starts to suck (or sucks from the start) I would love to know! Thank you all so much for reading though, I really hope you like it! Enjoy!**

**Legal crap: I don't own Yu Gi Oh!**

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><p><em><strong>Prologue<strong>_

"Papa, why do I have to go?"

Yasuo sighed and looked down at his small son; it was not the first time this question had been asked and he was sure that it would not be the last, even in the short remaining time they had left together. It pained him to answer each time, but he could not refuse his child's innocent inquiries, even if he would once again be unable to fully grasp the reality of the situation. He spoke slowly and softly as their wagon crossed the floor of sand, his low voice more powerful in the ears of his adoring son than the winds that surround them. "Because Little One, it is not safe to stay at home anymore," he said with a sad smile.

"Do you not love me anymore Papa?" Unshed tears were welling up in the child's wide eyes.

Guilt and grief stabbed at Yasuo's heart. An overwhelming wave of desire hit him. All he wanted to do was turn his party around and return home, to forget that this had ever happened and keep his child in the safety of his own arms. So badly was he tempted, and yet, he knew it could never be. When he looked down at his arms, wrinkling skin and joints arthritic with age, sadness replaced desire. Resolve hardened his heart. He had to protect his son's life, even at the sacrifice of his own happiness.

"Of course I love you Yuugi. I will always love you, my son, with all of my heart." He placed his large hands on the boy's tiny shoulders as he looked him in the eye. "You are my Little Blessing, sent from the Gods in the Heavens to grace your mother and I. If I could I would keep you in our home forever, Yuugi, but it is because I love you that you cannot stay."

"Why do I have to go if you really love me?" The childish demand came as Yuugi rubbed at his eyes with tiny fists, sniffles causing his words to pause intermittently.

"Yuugi," Yasuo's voice was stern, but not unkind, "My body ages more each day. Soon I will be joining your mother in the next life. Then I will no longer be able to watch over you. Your brothers and sisters are good people, but many and unorganized. Our village is a peaceful one, and ill-equipped for war. When I pass on I fear that...that someone will come and try to take our home from us." At the fear in his son's eyes he relaxed his hold on his son shoulders and softened his grim gaze. "Yuugi, Little One, I would rather you be a servant by the Pharaoh's side than a slave under his thumb."

"Papa!" With an infantile cry the child wrapped his arms around his father's waist and buried his face into the older man's chest, muffling his sobs against the comforting warmth of his parent's skin.

"There, there, Little One," Yasuo held the child and rubbed his back soothingly even as despair filled his own heart. "Cry your tears now Yuugi, cry your tears now," his voice said quietly, more to himself than his son. The great stone palace of the Pharaoh of Khemet grew in the horizon, he knew that all too soon his son would no longer be able to shed such unsightly tears.

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><p><em><strong>Chapter One<strong>_

_**"Dissolution & Assimilation"**_

Prince Atemu shifted his weight from one foot to the other and watched the single beetle on a near stone column. The beetle stretched and fluttered its iridescent wings before it detached itself from its stone perch and made its noisy escape from Pharaoh Akunamukanon's great throne room and into the late morning sun. Oh how the little prince wished that he could be like that beetle. He was bored; he wished to sigh and leave, but he would do nothing that would anger or shame his father. He was a prince, heir to the throne and the future pharaoh of Kehmet; if his father wanted him to observe what his future duties would entail then that was what he would do, no matter how utterly boring it might have been.

For two hours now the eight year old prince had watched generals come to discuss military matters, mayors bring news of their small districts, and ambassadors and rulers bear gifts and tidings of peace, and all of them prostrated themselves in front of the Mighty Pharaoh. There were so many gifts laid before them that the prince had lost track of what and how many had passed from the bearer to his father; he had heard there had been countless cattle and sheep and many fine stallions and well-bred mares; he had seen several strong and beautiful slaves of various sorts, trinkets of monetary and historical value, small piles of gems, gold, and precious metals, even barrels of spices and salts had been brought before the Great King. At first Atemu had watched with intrigued curiosity as the strange foreigners filled his home, studying their odd clothing and styles with relish, but the novelty of their appearance and gifts had worn off rather soon and the prince soon found his attention diverted. His mind wandered to thoughts of freedom and sunshine; he would much rather have been playing with Mana than standing here like a good little prince.

As the long processional of gift givers continued he paid them only one ear and one eye. Indeed, it was as he studied another beetle that had made its way into the great room and petulantly envying his manic friend that his interest was once again perked by the task at hand.

"Oh Great and Mighty Pharaoh Akunamukanon, I, Yasuo of the mountain tribe far to the north, humbly offer you a gift dearer to my heart than any metal or gem, my last son and child, Yuugi."

The word 'son' grabbed the young prince's attention. With a curious eye and astute mind he regarded the two figures bowed on the ground before his father; one was an old man with graying hair and a long robe that pooled around him along with his hair on the stone floor, beside him the much smaller figure of a child also bore a long robe that pooled around him, though his wild hair defied gravity as he bent on the ground. Their faces were to the ground as they knelt on bent knees and extended arms in total submission to the King of Kehmet; they looked to Atemu as though they were begging his father for the moon rather than offering him their rather strange gift. He watched them with anticipation, he wished to see the faces of these strange mountain people who offered their own sons as gifts. Atemu stole a quick sidelong glance to his father and watched a frown of contemplation settle on the king's face before turning back to the strangers, awaiting his father's next decision.

"Yasuo of the mountains, to offer one's own spontaneously is an odd gift. As it is your son I know you do not do it with the hope of marriage, so for what purpose, Yasuo of the northern mountains, do you give your son away so freely?"

The man knelt to the ground lifted only his head as he spoke to the king seated above him. "Great Pharaoh I offer him as a servant to you and your son, to be friend of the Great House of Pharaoh and the kingdom of Kehmet. If you allow it Mighty Pharaoh I know that he would be a loyal and true friend to your son and your kingdom; he was born five summers ago under the awakening light of the north most star as the sun was halfway below the mountains, he is not cut, but he will always be as gentle and mild as a winter's day and as loyal as the Gift of the Nile." The man's face was wrinkled and pained as he spoke. He was many seasons older than Atemu's own father, though his still unseen son seemed to be younger than Atemu himself.

"Rise Yasuo," Akunamukanon gave a motion with his hand and the prostrate man rose with some difficulty. Atemu studied the foreigner. His robes were plain and rather simple, they ended just above his feet and covered past his hands when his arms dropped; they looked to be a pale yellow and were flecked with dirt and dust from their long journey down the mountain and through the miles of sand. A ruler he might have been in his homeland, but before his godly father in his gold and headdress he looked like a peasant to Atemu.

The Pharaoh's face still held the serious look of a wise man contemplating the scene before him. "You have stated for what purpose you offer your son to me, but, though your tribe is small, I have heard of you, Yasuo, and your people. I have heard of the benevolence of your people and your value of family above all else. I can see and hear the grief in words. I ask you Yasuo, why do you present me with such an unusual gift. You may speak."

"Great Pharaoh," Yasuo began, his gray hair falling past his shoulders and shaking as he held back tears that threatened in his voice to surface, "Yuugi's mother, my young wife, has already perished. My body ages and my health fails me, Great Pharaoh, and my peaceful tribe grows weaker. He has many brothers and sisters, but with families of their own. I fear Great Pharaoh that when I pass on into my next life that our enemies will overtake my tribe, for we know little of fighting and war. When that happens my son Yuugi will have no protection." Atemu watched as the man before them shivered at the ghastly thought.

"So, this gift is a gift to yourself as well, the safety of your son." Pharaoh Akunamukanon words were spoken thoughtfully and evenly, no emotion carried through his voice.

"Forgive me Pharaoh," tears of shame and frustration leaked out despite their owner's will, "My actions are indeed selfish. But I promise you, Yuugi will be a good servant and loyal attendant, a friend to all of Kehmet!" Yasuo's words ended shrilly, the desperate plea was clear in his voice.

"I have no use for your son here," Yasuo's shoulders began to shake, "But I am also a father and not without heart; I will place your son in good hands, your gift will not be returned," he added kindly.

"I will accept your gift Yasuo, but heed my words," the seriousness of Akunamukanon's voice countered Yasuo's look of relief, "Your son will no longer be of the mountains, but of Kehmet. His loyalty will be to Pharaoh's house and he will be held to it."

"I understand Great Pharaoh," Yasuo dared not whisper, but could not bear to look up as he spoke and chose instead to look at the floor in front of him.

"Kahotep."

"Yes Pharaoh," the once invisible man who stood next to Akunamukanon moved from his side. Atemu watched as the rather small attendant stopped for give the pharaoh a low bow before he straightened and walked toward the foreigners before them. Kahotep moved swiftly and silently across the stone floor. He stopped Yasuo and gave the man the most imperceptible of bows before bending down and placing a tanned hand on the still prostrate boy's shoulder, pushing the boy to his knees.

Atemu watched with great curiosity as the boy's face finally came into view. What a strange face it was to him! The boy who knelt before them on the floor had skin as pale as the underbelly of a snake and eyes as wide as a fearful colt's; he looked as soft and weak as a flower petal.

Kahotep made a motion to rise with him and the boy scrambled hastily to his feet as the older man gracefully stood. The boy's blue robe fell about him and nearly tripped him as he moved; the robe, a replica of his father's, only served to make the small child look smaller and softer as he seemed to tremble in the fabric. The pharaoh's attendant kept a firm, custodial hand on the shivering boy's shoulder, deterring the him from moving.

"Great Pharaoh-," Yasuo's voice cracked, he kept his gaze averted to the floor.

"You may say your goodbyes," Pharaoh Akunamukanon answered the unasked question with a solemn nod.

Kahotep turned the boy so that he faced his father.

"Yuugi," Yasuo reached out as if to hug his son close, but restrained himself, finally allowing only himself to grasp his son's tiny hands between his own. "Be good. I love you my s-, Yuugi. Goodbye." Yasuo's last words came out so quietly that Atemu had to strain to hear them form where he sat. He then watched as Kahotep murmured something he could not hear to he boy and guided him out of the grand room, one hand still on the boy's shoulder, pushing him forward. Atemu kept his eyes on the duo until they fell into the shadows of the hall as they exited the room.

"I accept your gift, Yasuo of the mountains." The voice of his father turned Atemu's attention back to the two men near him.

"Great Pharaoh, I humbly thank you for your acceptance," Yasuo's grief all but mumbled the words. Tears, though he tried to hide them, were sliding down his weathered face as he turned to leave.

"Yasuo," Atemu and Yasuo both looked at his father as the Pharaoh's words stopped the man's departure, "It is a noble thing to sacrifice one's happiness as a father to provide happiness for one's son."

"Thank you Pharaoh," Yasuo's words once again came out softly and painfully. It was with hunched, broken father who left their hall, a far cry from the mountain tribesman he claimed to be.

"Atemu," Akunamukanon's voice turned his son's attention from the doorway to himself. "You have witnessed a great lesson tonight. Learn carefully from what that man has done tonight; to place another one's welfare above your own happiness is something that often eludes otherwise honorable men. It is something you must consider as both father and Pharaoh. It is an honorable man that we have seen tonight."

The procession began again as comparatively menial gifts were laid at the feet of the Pharaoh. Atemu turned his eyes once more to the doorway where Kahotep and the mountain men had last stood. Even after the morning audience had left and the lunch meal was brought before the ruler of Kehmet and his heir Atemu continued to mull over his father's words and the face of the boy who had been offered to wait on him as Kahotep did on his father.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! I hope you continue you too...and I love reviews also! (and if you have any questionscomplaints/whatever just let me know!)**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Boring stuff: I don't own Yu Gi Oh!**

**IMPORTANT: if you're confused/curious about anything here, there are some AN at the end of this chapter regarding the story and related historical notes, which might make it easier to understand (also feel free to shoot me a message etc)**

**Review thanks to ppl I can't PM:**

**kate: Thanks for the review (haha can't say they'll all be put up this quickly, and this is short, but I hope this speed will suffice for chapter two :) )**

**naomi: Thanks for another review! (lol I love and encourage them :D )**

**Thanks for reading!**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 2<strong>

**_"Nightfall-The Dawn of a Grey Day"_**

Yuugi felt tears beginning the choke him, a wail of grief was forming at the back of his throat.

Sensing the oncoming noise the hand on his shoulder tightened into a hard grip. "Do not shame yourself or your father by crying aloud," the man called Kahotep warned as he pushed him from the throne room into a dim hallway.

Yuugi forced the cries from coming out, allowing only a few sniffles and whimpers to leave his lips as he was directed past rooms and down corridors, past servants and slaves, priests and noblemen alike. For one who was normally so curious Yuugi saw none of what surrounded him, too overcome with fear and sadness to notice the mysterious beauty of this new place. Indeed he didn't even notice that they had stopped until Kahotep's voice shook his to awareness.

"This will be where you will sleep until your new master comes for you." The man's voice was stiff and cold and Yuugi found himself near tears again as he wished for the soothing warmth of his father's own voice. With some force Kahotep pushed Yuugi down onto a cot until the small child was seated on it. "I will return later. Rest for now."

The words hit Yuugi like a spell; he found himself falling back onto the straw mat as the fatigue of his grief finally overpowered him. The image of the man, no youth, towering above him faded as his eyes were pulled shut by spirits of the dream world. He was in a deep slumber before Kahotep had even left the room.

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><p>"You are troubled Kahotep." It was not a question, but a statement, for as both Pharaoh and as a companion Akunamukanon need not ask of Kahotep's feelings, knowing the other for over a decade had allowed him to read nearly every barely perceptible emotion that flitted across his servant's face.<p>

"Forgive me Pharaoh," Kahotep bowed in apology, both his body and tone stiff and serious.

"There is no need for apology. I ask though, what worry troubles the mind of my most loyal subject that he does not wish to share?" A nearly unnoticeable tinge of pink colored Kahotep's cheeks at the compliment.

"I suppose it is the fate of that child that concerns me," Kahotep's stated his carefully chosen words cautiously, slinking past potential pitfalls like a cat.

"Ah yes, I might have known." The great ruler gave a nod of understanding before drawing his brow together in a soft frown. "Ah, that child," he sighed, "A rather harsh reality for one so small from such an insular land. If what that tribesman said is indeed true then I am sure he is quite right. His people have known nothing of warfare for generations, they are as a people much like that child, innocent and naïve, but still it grieves a father to see one torn away from his own, especially when he bears a strong resemblance to my own flesh and blood." Akunamukanon trailed off with wistful nostalgia in his voice, thankfully allowed to show such weakness in the solitude of his hand servant. Kahotep merely nodded, though his gaze was sharp; he also had noticed the similarities between the two boys, it however, had only served to unnerve him.

"Have no fear Kahotep, I intend to keep my promise. The child will not be left to wander or beg. Call for my brother Kahotep."

"You mean then...to give the boy to High Priest Ahknadin?" It was the first time Kahotep had ever dared to question the living god that was his master; a thread of fear chilled him, though he kept it from reaching his voice.

"I do. Of course he does not need a servant here, but I am sure his home and his wife will appreciate the help, and moreover I know that the child will be in good hands with my brother and sister." The Pharaoh's eyes were set, he gave a nod of finality. His mind was made up. He gave his favored servant a kind smile, "I will tell my brother to not do what has been done to you. I am assured that the boy will be gentle as a lamb on his own accord. Go and fetch him now then, I wish to discuss the matter with him tonight."

Kahotep gave a low bow and left the room quickly. With practiced ease he seemingly glided through halls and around corners, the world inside Pharaoh's walls more familiar to him than the back of his own hand, and let his own troubled mind wander.

He had not been afraid, as his Pharaoh had assumed, that Yuugi would be forced into the life of a eunuch as he had. Though his had certainly not been the most pleasant fate, he thought he feared more for the boy who was to become a possession of Ahknadin.

His gaze and thoughts darkened as the face of the man came to his mind's eye; he had no legitimate reason to question the priest's loyalty, nor their bond as brothers, but he suspected Pharaoh's brother had darker intentions than he let be known. He had seen Ahknadin's less savory side on more than one occasion; the man was ever quick to anger and even quicker to turn to lash or cane to relieve his frustrations on unwitting servants and slaves. It was his right to treat them as he saw fit, but the satisfaction he seemed to achieve out of such unwarranted brutality troubled him deeply, not so much for those Ahknadin hit, but for who he believed Ahknadin imagined he was beating as he did so.

Had he any evidence of jealousy or treacherous doings he would have brought the matter to the attention of his majesty without delay or hesitation, even if it happened to cost him his life. He remained, however, without proof of any evil and without proof he could not speak to his king on such a matter; not only would the action be perilous to himself, but it would also leave both Pharaoh and Atemu without eyes or ears to watch Ahknadin. Kahotep was determined to keep both on the high priest as long as needed.

The entrance to the altar chamber loomed before him; a sad sigh escaped Kahotep. And now, knowing what he knew, this boy, young and frightened, would be offered up to a master known amongst his servants for his severity and cruelty. He could only hope for the small child that he remained with Ahknadin's wife and daughter, far from Ahknadin's hands, and that the high priest would respect the words of his brother. Kahotep could only imagine how a gift from Pharaoh might otherwise be treated if the threat of punishment were not present; he shuddered slightly at the thought.

Touching the ankh that hung from his neck Kahotep raised his eyes to the stone above him, as close to the heavens as his gaze could reach. "Please Ra, watch over that child and spare him from the wickedness of others. Please, Great God, bequeath onto him the same good fortune you gave me when you allowed my life to cross with that of Pharaoh's." He closed his eyes in prayer for a moment.

With one last small sigh Kahotep stood straight, all trace of emotion wiped clean from his face. His steps were as certain and dignified as ever when he entered the chamber.

"I humbly apologize for my intrusion, High Priest Ahknadin, but my lord Pharaoh wishes to see you at this moment."

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading!<strong>

**Sorry, a dreadfully short chapter...they'll get longer, but I want to start it off breaking it up at these certain points.**

**Sorry also for the few OC's appearing, there won't be many and they won't take up much space, but they're needed to get the story going.**

**Historical notes: Why eunuchs?: Although I couldn't find much on Egypt per se..in many ancient/older cultures eunuchs had the potential of being personal servants/attendants, advisors, guardians of concubines etc b/c practical (they had no family, lovers didn't count, to be loyal to before their ruler) and belief (supposedly eunuchs could be trusted to not ill-advise the king/ruler (apparently no testes = trustworthy?) or be aggressive.**

***a eunuch is loosely someone who can't/chooses not to have a wife or child b/c of castration (removal of the testicles, as in Kahotep's case) or impotence etc.**

**Thus because of Yuugi's heritage/cultural background (the mountain tribe) and his physical appearance (freakin' adorable) they assume nothing further is necessary (castration) to make him docile.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I don't own Yu Gi Oh! I just do it for funsies. Oi, short chapter is short again, sorry guys, hopefully the chapters will start to get longer, but the chapters have been short mainly because of where I wanted to have a break in the story rather than intentionally keeping them short. **

**Thank you very much to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, faving, and alerting. I really appreciate all that you guys do, and seriously, reviews are super awesome because otherwise I don't have much of a clue if the story is good or bad in your opinion. Thank you again to kate since I can't PM you.**

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><p><em><strong>CHAPTER 3<strong>_

_**"The Past Has Passed"**_

War had indeed come to Yasuo's lands, just as the tribesman had predicted. Within the year of his presence and departure in the house of the Pharaoh his lands had been ransacked and destroyed, the once beautiful village laid to only smoldering rubble and ash, pieces of lives burned and left to be strewn on the ground: handmade bowls and cups, a simple ragdoll, the leg of what had once been a table or chair.

The people of Yasuo's mountain tribe had also disappeared. Many had been killed in the rampage, some had been taken as slaves; an even smaller number were claimed to have survived the attacks, staying only long enough to bury their dead before moving on to find a new home as refugees. The poor damned souls had never even stood a chance.

Whether it had occurred before or during, both Pharaoh and his servant were confident that the tribesman who had graced their homeland was no more. Though neither spoke of it they knew it to be true. The disappearance of the village and its tribe, however, barely raised the attention of any in Kehmet, save for Akunamukanon and Kahotep. Such a small and insular land, as Pharaoh had called it, had had little impact on its surroundings for generations. Indeed so few even knew of the place that its disappearance had constituted as much consideration as its existence had.

But there was still one living for whom its existence meant everything.

Kahotep, however, was resolved not to mention the matter to Yuugi. There was no point to forcing the boy to be reminded of the home and family he had left or to learn of the devastation that had befallen them. No, hopefully the boy would have heeded Kahotep's words and left the past where it belonged.

"_You will always be respectful to your master. Do you understand?" Kahotep's voice was commanding, without sympathy, for he knew Yuugi would receive none from now on._

"_Yes," the boy was shaking in his own skin. Tiny shoulders were hunched over and in as if to protect himself from his new life._

"_Do not show such weakness in front of your master unless he asks it of you. It is offensive," he snapped. "Do not be defiant either. Remain calm and humble; keep your eyes to the ground, do not speak unless asked to, and do what you are asked to do with speed and without hesitation. Your actions should only be noticed in the care they bring to your master's home, your presence should remain invisible until your master asks for you. Look at me." He seized the child's shoulders, giving them a small shake and forcing the child to look up at him. The child's eyes were wide with fright, violet hued irises stared back at him with the mesmerized terror of caught prey. He sighed and knelt, allowing his white robe to be dirtied as one knee touched the ground._

"_Yuugi," he said softly, gently. The child's gaze gained focus. "Listen to me. This will not be an easy life. The days of your youth are fast drawing to a close even though you are still but a child. Be thankful though, for Pharaoh has spared your life from the harsh cruelty you would have experienced otherwise," which he could only pray would be true, "You have had the good fortune of the love of your father, the grace of Pharaoh, and the luck of Ra."_

_The flames from the wall torches threw their light at the pair, something bright glinted against the boy's chest, just peaking from beneath his tunic. _

"_What is this?" Kahotep demanded, harshly pulling the shining object from the confines of the cloth, earning a cry from the child it hung from._

_The necklace's pendant sat against Kahotep's fingers as he examined it. A golden bird with giant wings and a flowing tail carefully molded and sculpted by skilled hands stared back at him with small ruby eyes as it possessively clutched a ruby the size of his smallest fingernail in its talons. The expertly crafted gold chain slid like silk over his palm, as fine and intricate as the pendant it bore._

"_This is a family item, is it not?" he hissed. "You must not wear this." He reached to pull the necklace from the boy's own slender neck._

"_No!" For the first time the boy jumped back from Kahotep; he clutched the bird tightly in his little hands, holding it away and close to his face to keep it out of reach. A river of tears began to stream down his pale chubby cheeks. "Please, don't take this from me! Please!"_

"_It was your father's then, wasn't it?" Little Yuugi nodded, hiccuping on a sob as he did so. Kahotep sighed heavily. "I will not take it from you child, but you must never wear it little one. You are no longer Yuugi of the mountains, but Yuugi of Kehmet, of the desert and sand; for one in your position to wear such an item is offensive to your masters, it will show to them a treasonous alliance to the land that was once your home. Your allegiance now is to Pharaoh above all and your master under that, you must forget the ties and duty you once held to your tribe. Both ties and duty to them have been erased. Yuugi," he beckoned the child back over; he trotted back obediently, still clutching his prize in one tiny fist, "I will let you keep this trinket, but you must promise me that you will not wear it and that you will forget the past. If you cannot do that then I must take it from you. Can you do that Yuugi?" His gaze and voice were hard and stern._

_The child before him nodded slowly; sniffling and rubbing his red eyes with still curled fists. Kahotep felt the barest of smiles grace his face, his otherwise grim features briefly softened and lightened. "Then for the time being you may keep it."_

_Yuugi graced him with a bright smile. "Thank you Kahotep! I'll be good, I promise!" Small arms flung themselves around Kahotep's neck as Yuugi threw himself into the larger male._

_At the sudden contact Kahotep's body stiffened, his eyes widened in surprise. Slowly and gingerly he returned the embrace of the charge in his arms, who seemed unlikely to willingly let go anytime soon. He allowed another small smile grace his features. "Good boy," he murmured quietly; he rubbed the child's back in what he hoped was a soothing manner._

_Though all Yuugi noticed was the warmth emanating from Kahotep's own small frame and the heartbeat that calmed him through their layers of clothing, Kahotep's own thoughts were of an entirely different nature. The dedicated servant of Pharaoh's brows were knitted as he cursed himself. It would have been best, would have been safest, for him to simply take the child's necklace, to command him to forget the past. He doubted Yuugi would know sympathy or generosity in the near future; it was best he got used to the notion. And yet, though his original intention had been otherwise, he found it strangely difficult to remain as stern as he should have with his little charge. _

_Kahotep was unused to feeling such softness, such weakness, to anyone, even himself; dutifully he served and followed his pharaoh and Pharaoh's house. He would give up his life without hesitation to ensure Pharaoh's safety or happiness; but to freely give this newcomer such a hold on his emotions was worrisome._

_Kahotep was a good man; he knew that he was neither without honor or heart, but he had to wonder at the ease with which Yuugi had gained his sympathy, his empathy. He wondered at the pharaoh's words as he absentmindedly rubbed small circles against the mountain boy's back. Was it so hard to be harsh with the boy because of his resemblance to his prince? Or, perhaps, was it Yuugi himself, his innocence and what would be their shared experiences, that commanded Kahotep to act this frivolously. _

_With unusual mildness Kahotep removed the arms that encircled his neck and pushed Yuugi back slightly. From an unseen pouch in the sleeve of his robe Kahotep removed a piece of cloth and began to wipe the tears and snot from Yuugi's face with the tenderness of a mother bird with her chick. _

"_Come now, little Yuugi, we must not let Master Ahknadin see such tears. Come with me, we will fetch you a new robe to wear befitting your new status and I will teach you all that I can until you leave. Your new master sends you home tomorrow morning with the rest of his convoy."_

_With one authoritative arm wrapped around the boy's shoulders Kahotep lead Yuugi from the small servant's chamber he had been sleeping. The sounds of their movements echoing off the stone walls and the occasional scurrying servant, fearful to meet the cold eyes of Pharaoh's personal attendant, were their only companions as they walked through hallways to one of the palace's many supply rooms. Kahotep could only hope that he could instill in Yuugi the same weariness and caution he felt with the guardian without betraying his true fears or besmirching the name of Pharaoh's house. _

"_Good luck little Yuugi," he thought with silent prayer, "I will ask Ra to watch over you. I only hope that someday soon I will see you again and you will remain healthy in both body and spirit."_

One and a half cycles of the seasons had passed since then. The boy would be seven now, if his memory served him correctly. As much as he wished to deny it, Kahotep was both worried and excited to see the boy, though the apathetic expression he wore never showed it; he feared how Yuugi might have been treated during Ahknadin's trips back home, but in spite of such feelings he felt a tremor of joy at seeing the one he had come to see as a charge of sorts.

The horse beneath him whinnied as it trotted across the dry earth below them. The footfalls of the convoy's steeds created a din above which little could be heard. It was a small and effective team that traveled over the earth to the home of Guardian Ahknadin. Two servants of Ahknadin traveled behind Kahotep in silence, one bearing a satchel bursting with gifts and the other carrying a smaller, slimmer satchel bearing unknown contents. Whether they rode behind in respect or defiance of the pharaoh's chosen attendant remained to be seen. Three guards flanked them from the outside, one at the head, one at the rear, and one at the side of their last party member.

Seto, Ahknadin's eldest child and only son, rode behind Kahotep in the middle of their party, safely secured between guard and servant. At only eleven years of age the boy possessed a seriousness that rivaled Kahotep's own, though it was of little surprise for who had raised him. Ahknadin might not have been a cruel father as he was a master, but he was no less demanding or critical with son than with servant.

It wasn't until the Ra was low in the horizon that the party caught sight of Guardian Ahknadin's large estate, illuminated by the ferocious glow of the setting sun behind it. The travelers rejoiced at the sight, weary from their day long journey. As they entered the estate's compound grounds they were greeted by a team of servants who silently took their steeds to unseen stables after they had dismounted from the beasts of burden.

The first one to truly greet the arriving party was a young girl, who ran full tilt towards the group with her long, dark hair flying in the evening breeze. She came at them laughing joyously with outstretched arms, only to come to a dead halt twenty feet from them with an angry pout marring her features.

With a quick eye her gaze finally came to rest on the youngest member of their party. "Brother," she demanded with crossed arms, "Where is Father?"

"Yes, pray tell me, where is my husband? I had believed he would be arriving as well," a soft voice joined the midst as a young woman, tall and exuding noble grace, came up from behind and placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders.

Kahotep stepped forward and gave a low bow to the regal woman. His voice was both submissively light and quietly commanding. "I humbly apologize, my lady, that I bring neither your husband or your brother. They were detained on a brief matter. His Majesty Pharaoh wished me to tell you that they shall becoming tomorrow by Ra's falling at the latest."

"I see. You may rise servant. Hatsu, take care of Pharaoh's servants. Come Seto," she motioned to her stoically unwavering son, "I wish for you to tell me all about your journey."

"Yes Mother," the boy obediently met his mother and let her guide him away beside his sister, her arms wrapped happily about their shoulders. It wasn't until the trio had crossed the home's threshold, servants trailing behind, that anyone spoke.

"This way," the head servant known as Hatsu turned and Kahotep followed, neither uttering another word.

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><p>It wasn't until he had eaten his late, light meal and the noble family had retired to their inner chambers for the evening that Kahotep ventured from his servant's room, certain that no more inquiries would be made of him. Torches lit the bare halls of the servants' chambers and the sanctum of the compound grounds; everything was quieter in the hours of nightfall. Some servants continued their quiet work through the evening hours, while others sat in small groups in their quarters and darkened corners, gossiping and entertaining themselves in their leisure time. Try as he might though, Kahotep seemed unable to find the one servant he actually wished to speak to.<p>

A group of three young women gasped in surprise as he came around the corner, only to giggle and whisper coyly to one another as he stepped from the shadows and the torch light danced across his pretty features. He stifled a curse. His foreign status limited his access to much of the guardian's home and he was running out of options and ideas. He had checked the stables, the guards' chamber, the servants' chambers, and the compound grounds and it seemed there was no where left he could check; if Yuugi was a kitchen hand or a servant within the walls of the guardian's home he had no hope of venturing inside simply to check up on one of their master's servants. Now was his chance, possibly his only chance, to check on the welfare of the boy and it seemed as though the opportunity had already slipped through his fingers. Was the boy even still here at all?

"Are you seeking something, Master Kahotep?" The voice behind him was suspicious and condescending, a master of his domain weary of the unknown interloper.

The servant cursed his luck; there was no telling what Hatsu might do or tell his own master. Honesty, he decided reluctantly as he slowly turned, would unfortunately be the best policy in his current circumstances.

"I seek a boy," he stated flatly, blue eyes meeting Hatsu's brown, "A boy by the name of Yuugi. He was a gift from Pharaoh to your master, but he was also briefly my charge. He is a small child, he would be no more than seven years of age by now; he is a pale child and with rather bright violet eyes. I have not heard of his well being since then and I wish to see him and make certain that he is alright; for my own sake of mind."

Hatsu said nothing at first but gave a stiff nod. Brown eyes briefly searched blue for any lies or deception before speaking. "The name is unfamiliar, but I do remember such a servant coming here; a rather small and weak boy, very timid." Hatsu paused and Kahotep nodded. "I believe he is in the women's chambers. Follow me, I will bring you there."

Kahotep followed Hatsu's footsteps silently through a few hallways, more female servants present with each one, all giggling with one another or working hurriedly to fulfill their duties. Hatsu stopped in front of a doorway and turned to face the other servant.

"This is the entrance to the women's chambers. I will not go in further, but I see no harm in letting you do so," he said as he regarded the other, his tone thick with certain knowledge. "The child should be somewhere in there," at this he gave a small, amused chuckle, "Though I would be careful in there; the women tend to react unkindly to male visitors, even ones such as yourself."

Kahotep's blond brows knitted irately in his dark skin, but the guardian's servant had already turned to leave. With a derisive snort the fair servant entered the domain, albeit cautiously, and began his search. Luckily, however, he needn't look for long because no sooner had he taken ten steps into this new corridor than a pile of linen and towels hovered from a small side room, pointed hair above it the only evidence of its bearer.

"Yuugi?"

The pile stopped and a face turned to peer around the bundle in hand. "Kahotep?" The child's face broke into a wide grin, his body struggling with excitement and only managed to stop himself in time from discarding his load and running over to the other male.

The pharaoh's servant stepped forward and pulled some of the clean linen from Yuugi's small arms. "Come now and show me where we are to bring these. I wish to inquire about your health."

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed and I greatly appreciate reviews! <strong>

**-side note: btw, if you're wondering why I changed Ahknadin's/Seto's (I know some ppl use'Seth' but according to Yu Gi Oh wiki it's Seto so I'm gonna stick with that) past it's because it frankly works better for the story (dude's gotta have a reason to need Yuugi around). Also, since I forgot to explain last chapter, if you're wondering why Pharaoh (Atemu's dad) called his brother's wife his sister, it's not because they're actually blood related (at least not that close, though that prob wouldn't have been that odd either) but because the idea of once someone marries a member of the family they pretty much marry into the family, at least in the case of women (this general idea has been prevalent in many cultures, but idk about ancient Egypt for certain, but I'm rolling with it)**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: First: I don't own Yu Gi Oh.**

**Second:...yay another chapter out! FYI the writing after this and the next chapter might change slightly in style (hopefully for the better) just because the majority of these chapters were written a few months ago. **

**Thank you so much to everyone who's been reading and faving and alerting and reviewing! I appreciate it so much! And (unforunately as always) I have many thanks I need to send out that will take me a little time between writing and school work and work work. Seriously though, you guys are amazing and I'm so glad that you've been enjoying the story! I really hope you'll keep writing and keep enjoying it!**

**Also, fyi: for anyone who's curious: Hatsu's a totally made up name, but Kahotep is a name from ancient Egypt (according to the internet) that means 'peaceful essence' (these two guys are really that all that I own here along with the story :P) Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy and as always reviews are most appreciated and welcome!**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 4<strong>

_"The Troubles of the Setting Sun"_

Yuugi watched from the safe shadows of a secluded alcove as the pharaoh, his master, and their party traveled off into the distance, staying until their blurred forms disappeared in the haze of the bright sun above. He was saddened to watch Kahotep leave with them, but, try as he might, he couldn't help but feel relieved to see his master go once more from his home. It was his master's presence, in fact, that had forced him to see his friend off from the hidden recesses of a space behind several large grain stills by the stables. His existence, when his master was home, was a rather precarious one, just as he had told Kahotep during his stay.

"_And you obey your master? You act in a manner pleasing to him?"_

_Yuugi hesitated under Kahotep's piercing gaze, he looked to the ground and shifted on his feet._

"_Child..." the tone was intimidating, mildly threatening._

"_...I try to, really I do!" Frustration and anxiety made his voice higher and louder, "But I can't seem to ever please him! I think...he hates the sight of me," he ended softly._

"_And that is why you assist the women in their chambers." It was neither a question nor a statement, but something in between that Yuugi could not identify. Unable to form an adequate response the child simply nodded, a small flush of shame in his cheeks._

_It wasn't that he really disliked his tasks. In fact, if he was honest, he preferred being down here to the other tasks that would have awaited him outside these chambers; the women down here were mostly kind and pleasant to him, even doting when time and energy permitted, though he could have done without their appraisal of his "cuteness", and up above, his tiny frame, delicate features, and gentle disposition certainly would only serve to add to his daily burdens. Some of the servant boys seemed alright, but most teased and picked on him when they had the chance, and the men most certainly mocked him, even if good-naturedly, whenever he accidentally crossed their paths. His tendency to be accident prone had not helped him to win favor with the males of his master's house; he was lucky that the women he assisted usually had more patience for him._

_He liked the kindness down here, the relative ease of existence that usually spared him the sight, and fear, of his master. He would have been lying though if the very reasons for his specific duties had no effect on him. Despite whatever pleasure he got from his assigned job, he still understood that its purpose was to shame him, to demean him. That fact had been drilled into him early on by his interactions with the other servants of this house, and if he had had any doubts, the look in his master's eyes whenever he laid sight on him had made sure Yuugi understood his lack of favor with painful clarity. _

"_If your presence does not please Master Ahknadin then keep yourself from view Yuugi." And those had been Kahotep's last words on the matter, even as he laid a subtly sympathetic hand on his shoulder. The seven year old had been left to nod in dismay, and the faint hope he'd retained for help from his distant friend was extinguished. _

Yuugi stood and entered the sunlight when the very last hazy image of the party was finally engulfed by Ra's brilliance. Though his counterpart was cold and stony Yuugi had already begun to wonder when they would next meet; Kahotep's face was sadly the one familiar thing he could tie in connection to his father, who's own face seemed to be slipping further and further into the recesses of his memory. He had already lost a clear picture of what his mother had looked like and he was desperate to cling to whatever he could salvage of his father's memory. Even if it was distorted with the additions of someone else's features it was something, and something was far less terrifying than nothing at all.

In nervous habit Yuugi grabbed at his bicep, pulling it close to his body so that he could feel the small object hidden in its folds flush against his side. Though it was concealed now out of fear of theft and not threat of displeasing his master, the necklace Yuugi had inherited from his father lay in a tightly sown up pocket of fabric on the inside of his sleeve, obscured by his arm. The stitching, done by his own hand with scraps of thread and sliver of bone for needle, was clumsy at best, but it served its purpose, and for that he was glad. He needed what little comfort he could find in this strange place where fathers were cruel and cold, where the sun beat down mercilessly and snow never touched the ground, where the rain fell only for a brief period during the year and then seemingly all at once. The memory of home flowed through him, and he sighed at the thought of landscapes of mountain grass and cool breezes. On instinct his nose flared and his lungs burst in expansion, but far from the scent of fresh spring inhaled only the smell of sand and desert flowers.

"Yuugi!" A voice called for him, brimming with impatience; like the shock of the scent of hot earth it pulled him from his reverie back to his surroundings.

With a startled little jump he scurried toward the voice and his chores like the child he was, always dutiful and eager to please. Back it was to the everyday routine of work and banal servitude; it was a routine that would continue for years to come, until one fateful day when, unbeknownst to anyone, Yuugi's life would be forever changed once more.

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><p>"Yuugi! Yuugi!" A small frame, though still an inch or two taller than himself, rushed toward the boy as he hung and gathered linen sheets under the noon sun.<p>

"What is it Tea?" he asked with a furrowed brow, face and tone laced with concern. Teana, or Tea as her friend had affectionately dubbed her, ran up and stopped just a foot away from him. She bent over, hands on knees, as she drew in breath, trying to regain what she had lost from her hurried search.

Quickly the girl stood and wiped her hands on the robe she wore, the same plain beige one as Yuugi's and nearly the same size, smoothing it into its proper condition before latching onto Yuugi's wrist in an attempt to pull him away with her. The boy, however, resisted, digging his bare heels into the dusty ground below. "Tea! I have to finish this!" he whine with a wild gesture to the sheets behind him that stood flapping like banners under the influence of a mild breeze.

The servant girl within a year of his own age shook her head in protest, her ends of her brown tendrils of hair flying from her shoulders as she did so. Her big blue eyes were wide; she tugged more harshly at the smaller boy, urging him to follow. "No, Yuugi, you have to come, now! Master Ahknadin is back!"

That was all that was needed to convince the fourteen-year-old to move. He only stopped to grab his basket of clean linen from the ground before hurrying after the insistent girl. Though he knew he was going to be in trouble later for leaving his task half-finished, Yuugi also knew he would much rather suffer the wrath of the older female servants or even Hatsu than that of his master.

The duo ran, breathing hard from exertion and fear, until they had slipped into the entrance that lead to the women's chambers. Chatter and the sounds of labor echoed from within the long hall, but neither child could hear it, the sound of their hearts beat too fervently in their ears.

"Has he come back with Pharaoh?" Yuugi's voice was hopeful, his violet eyes looked at hers imploringly.

Tea shook her head sadly, pained as the boy's happiness deflated. She hated to see her best friend so hurt or disappointed and, unfortunately, try as he might hide it, it was a look she often saw when he thought no one was watching. She bit her lip before adding, "No, but he has brought a man back with him. I do not know who though."

The sound of approaching voices and footfalls hushed the whispers of the children. They had hidden themselves just quickly enough. Both exhaled in relief when the voices grew dimmer in retreat, headed off in the direction of their master's home. A hearty laugh reached their ears. Yuugi frowned.

"Why is master never happy when he sees me? What have I done wrong?"

Tea rolled her eyes at the other's pout. "Yuugi, he is our master, not our friend. Or have you forgotten that?" she ended in a tease, giggling at the blush that arrived on the other's face in return.

"I know that! It is only just...he hates me. He really hates me Tea, and I don't know why."

Tea stopped her giggling and looked away. Although she didn't wish to worry her friend she secretly agreed; she knew how right Yuugi's assumption was. When she had first come here four years ago with her mother, their master had seemed rather frightening, ill-natured and short tempered; but he was rather like a snake, as long as you did not bother him he would usually not bother you. She had been only ten then and Yuugi nine and though her master's temperament with Yuugi had certainly been worse than with her, despite being in his presence more as a house servant, it had still seemed relatively normal. Tea had just assumed that the boy's attitude, prone to daydreaming and timidness, or his tendency toward causing accidents, which seemed to frequently be caused by the aforementioned attributes, bothered her master. She had sympathized with Yuugi, especially as they grew to be the best of friends, but had largely ignored the matter; Yuugi, after all, was very adept at staying out of their master's sight when he happened to be home. Lately, however, the hostility between master and servant, or rather, from master to servant, had become blatantly obvious. There was no getting around the issue; for some inexplicable reason Ahknadin, master of their house and guardian and brother of Pharaoh, simply could not stand the sight of poor, pale, defenseless Yuugi. And though Yuugi continued to try and stay out of their master's sight, the tactic was quickly failing as their master began to actively seek Yuugi out.

What could one do though? Where was a plausible solution? Other than to hope that Yuugi could either find a way to please his master or a way to avoid him altogether there was none. That, and only that, was what Yuugi could do. There were no other options.

Even Kahotep, the beautiful, cold young man that periodically came with Pharaoh, offered no remedy to the pleading Yuugi. Though Tea was slightly jealous of their bond she couldn't understand for the life of her how Yuugi could be so enthralled with someone so cold and distant; it seemed utterly impossible in her reasoning. How on earth could anyone with a heart, master or slave, peasant or noble, deny someone as pure as Yuugi help when he gazed so pleadingly with those crystal clear eyes of his?

"Don't worry Yuugi. Even if he does not care for you, you know I do and I will always be here for you." Tea turned her grimace into a bright smile and wrapped her arms around the smaller child in a tight hug. She giggled joyfully as the boy went stiff in her hold; she did not need to look down to know that Yuugi's face was glowing like a sunset.

After a moment the slender brunette released Yuugi from her warm figure and stood back. Yuugi's face was still a rather magnificent shade of red and his little fists were balled tightly at the end of his stiffened arms; he seemed quite unable to look at her in the eye.

"I had better leave before my mother scolds me, but I will come to see you after, okay?" Yuugi nodded and made a small noise of assent. Unable to resist the temptation, Tea bent down and gave his fevered cheek a chaste kiss before running from the corridor toward the main house. "Bye Yuugi, I will see you after dinner!" she yelled over her shoulder.

"Tea!" Said girl's laughter was the only response to Yuugi's frustrated cry. Face heated higher than he had thought even possible, the small boy was left to pout at his friend's back as her frame ran up the stairs and towards the house kitchens, towards duties of her own. Despite his love for his friend he certainly could have done without her constant teasing.

"Damn that boy, where has he gone to now? He gets lost in more clouds than are set in the sky!"

The voice, growing louder and closer, shot a tremor of fear through Yuugi's heart. He glanced quickly, nervously, down at the half empty basket before him. With a swallow of anxiety he hurriedly picked up his bundle and headed down into the recesses of the hall. "Coming mistress!"

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><p>Slowly the hours of the day waned on; noon turned into afternoon, afternoon into evening, and finally, when Ra had finally lowered himself below the horizon and the moon rose to taken its place, evening turned into night. It was now that most of the servants took their break; their masters and mistresses fed and sated, those not providing entertainment or service to the family came together to partake in their meal and merriment. Their meals were simple and so was their entertainment, but the break from work and toil, menial or arduous, was welcome. Together they supped and afterward engaged in conversation and game in the light of fire pit and torch.<p>

For many the respite was brief. There were still duties and tasks to be taken care of in the dead of night; their home's few guards changed shift, stable hands took last regard of both steed and livestock before retiring for bed, and servants cleaned and prepared anything that might be needed for the next morning. Most others, fatigued from one more labor filled day, simply went to sleep soon after their meal, knowing that the next day they would be up before even Ra had risen in the sky.

Tea fell into the last category. She came to eat her meal with Yuugi already tired and smelling of food and sweat from her work alongside her mother. As with many other nights she was so sleepy by the end of their dinner that she began to fall asleep against Yuugi as they enjoyed one another's company afterward. On more peaceful days, when both had had less work and more energy, they would play games in the torchlight, Tea often losing with good humor for the joy that such games brought the violet-eyed boy, and when they had had their fill, or rather Tea had had hers, they would talk until their minds were dull and sleepy or they were called away to bed by their guardians.

Then there were nights such as these, when one or both of them were so exhausted that even minimal conversation could not be carried on, and they simply rested against one another in serene silence. In a sense it was these nights that Yuugi cherished more; there was something reassuring about feeling the weight and warmth of someone who you loved and who you knew loved you, in any true sense of the word, resting against yourself, skin to skin. It was a feeling like completion.

It was that feeling that helped to stave off the chill he often felt in his heart.

There was a cold kind of loneliness that struck him at times, clutched at his mind like a vice. It was at those times that he was reminded of his father, and would then be consumed by both guilt and grief. He would clutch at his sleeves during those moments, rubbing his fingers over the lumpy surface where his necklace with the red-eyed phoenix still lay hidden in his now expertly crafted pocket. It was during those moments that he could not fool himself into believing that he felt no pain at the absence of his father, or that he had forgotten his homeland as Kahotep had made him promise to do so many years ago. He could not even pretend during those times that even Kahotep or Tea could bring him comfort.

He felt a bond with Kahotep, knowing that even though there was so much he did not know or understand about the older male that he would inherently understand much about Yuugi's position in life. Yet, for all of the bond they had and the care Yuugi knew Kahotep had for him somewhere, even sans-admission, Kahotep was still cold and aloof most of the time. It was a side that a tiny part of Yuugi unwittingly admired and feared, wanting that strength and eschewing it simultaneously.

Tea,on the other hand, was always warm and caring, but for all that she knew about Yuugi and he about her, there were just certain things that they would never, could never, understand about one another. Though neither spoke of it they both knew that the inexplicable distance could never be crossed, no matter how hard they tried, and it was a saddening prospect. Two souls who wished they could feel closer than they ever would, as if two trying to force a match of soul mates; though their young minds failed to see this within themselves. Instead they shared secrets and dreams as children do. Tea had seen Yuugi's necklace and sworn not to tell, and she had told Yuugi of how her father had died and her mother had sold them both into servitude in order to assure their survival. They told each other of goals to leave and explore all of Kehmet together, to see Pharaoh's brilliant palace, though Yuugi had not mentioned his brief trip there, and to never work as a servant or slave again. Their lives were not awful and their dreams were lofty, but they enjoyed the pleasure that such imaginings brought. It detracted from the fear that nipped at their heels; the uncertainty they faced, the unforeseen future that lay darkly before them.

These were the thoughts and fears that claimed Yuugi's mind in the darkness of this night after he had wished Tea a pleasant night's dreaming and watched her retreat to the room she shared with her mother and several other servants. The very same fears had often taken hold of him at night, but they were, at times, more intense, and this was one of those nights.

Yuugi sat on the ground with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. He watched the stars and moon overhead as he leaned against the stable wall behind him. He vaguely remembered a story someone had once told him, his mother?, his father?, about a rabbit that lived on the moon, a rabbit that you could see if you looked at the glowing orb above just right. It was a silly old tale, and sacrilegious here, but he still tried to find it nonetheless- a solitary game to play in the lonely dark. He was so busy squinting up into the darkness that at first he didn't notice a set of voices headed in his direction, separate from the sporadic gathering of servants near by.

A head came around the corner and stared down at him with cold focus of a vigilant hunter. Yuugi nearly jumped out of his skin. Dark eyes bore into his own before flickering back and disappearing. It had only been a moment and under the deceiving shadows of torchlight, but the visage was unmistakable and it sent a rumbling nausea through Yuugi's stomach.

"I have found him, Master Ahknadin," Hatsu, head servant in all of his master's estate, could be heard around the corner from where he had just appeared and disappeared. The man's whole body then came back around to arrest the boy under his predatory gaze. "Rise child and prepare to bow, your master approaches."

Yuugi scrambled to stand, his feet shamefully bare in celebration of his nighttime leisure. He dared not disobey the overseer of his master's house however; no servant, save possibly Kahotep, had the nerve to oppose the tall, dark man whose long queue of black hair, the only on his shaved head, fell and flew like a whip. Yuugi, in fact, did not even wait for his master to fully make his way around the stable wall before he entered a low bow; bent nearly perfectly at the waist, he could not even see the slippers of his master or his companion as they approached, instead his eyes met their long shadows as they were flung toward him like demons of the underworld. He shivered. Never before had his master's presence been in his favor and he doubted that it would be now.

"Yes, this is the boy," there was the undercurrent there of disdain, of loathing, that Yuugi knew well.

Either his companion failed to hear the tone or chose to ignore it because he made no comment on the matter. "Ah yes. It would help though, Ahknadin my friend, if I could see his features a little better."

"Yuugi, stand up." The voice snapped and cracked and Yuugi flinched.

"Yes Master Ahknadin," he rose obediently and frightfully met the scene before him.

Three sets of eyes were all regarding him, focusing intently just on him as if he were the questionable pig or calf at market, determining worth and price. Yuugi tried desperately to ignore the clammy hand of fear that gripped at him in the warm night. Hatsu watched him with narrowed eyes in silent command from just behind his master, who stared at the boy with something like victory and disgust. The last man, the unknown, was watching him with neither a cold nor friendly eye, but an appraising one, calculating silently as a tanned hand thoughtfully stroked at the short, dark beard that fell from his chin. Ironically, it was fear that kept Yuugi's urge to shiver in check. He wished to ask what the dark haired man was studying in him, but he dared not speak a word.

"He is fair, I will certainly give you that Ahknadin," said the man, who, in the shadows of torchlight, Yuugi guessed to be in his third decade of life, "but he is still young, is he not?" he ended as he turned to Yuugi's master.

Ahknadin turned to his companion and nodded and suddenly it was as though Yuugi were not even there or not aware, they carried on the conversation as though he were out of earshot or presence. "Yes, but his features will only grow to be fairer I am sure; he is one of those mountain folk, I've been told. The boy will give you no trouble, he can be clumsy with fine tasks on occasion, but never will be speak against you or disobey your word. He has all the fire Ra instilled in a butterfly, but all the beauty as well."

Just as soon as the pale boy felt a swell of happiness at his master's praise he felt a greater wave of anxiety and despair. There was simply no reason for Ahknadin to comment on his aptitude, let alone his fair features, especially not in such exalting tones. Yuugi was naïve enough to hope that there was no reason to fear his master's sudden change of heart, but not stupid enough to believe there was not.

"And what am I to do with him in the meantime Ahknadin? You know that his youth does not appeal to me now, am I to simply wait until such a time arrives and be debited for my investment all the while? You know, there is no certainty that his features will remain so delicate in the future, what it if age ravages the boy's face or body, what am I to do then?"

There was a slyness in those words, in the way that his master and this man looked to one another, that sent another stirring of panic deep into Yuugi's belly. He may have not been to the marketplace before, but he had a feeling that what he was hearing was the language of haggling. Anxiously he looked to Hatsu, but the man's cold eyes and stoic expression told him nothing.

"I will keep him for three-quarters of the next year. By then the boy should be within a hair of fifteen years of age, I am sure that that will be old enough for you to take him. If his appearance does not appeal to you by then take the time to let him adjust to the harem. I am sure he could benefit from any lessons the concubines could teach him. He is the perfect servant, he could be molded to suit your tastes before you even use him!"

Yuugi's heart stopped cold in his chest. He did not want to believe what was being said; every fiber in his mind screamed at him to deny the truth, to deny that any of this was real, that everything he was assuming was a misinterpretation. Even he, however, was not that innocent. His fate had been determined by his master, and by the man who accompanied him, the man who would be his new master. And to him, it would seem, he would once again be used for whatever ill purpose suited the new ruler of his destiny; and though once again he prayed that he would go unnoticed in his future home, for the first time he prayed that he would not be loved there. He shuddered and shook at the thought, and though his masters either did not care or did not notice, Hatsu did, and his soil-stained irises narrowed at Yuugi as they bore warning daggers into his delicate frame. Those eyes dared Yuugi to give any sign of defiance, one utterance, one displeasing gesture, anything other than complete submission to the tearful future that laid in wait for him.

Life was seldom fair. It was a lesson that Yuugi had already learned so many times, when his mother died, when his father had sent him away, when he had left Kahotep, when his master Ahknadin showed him hate, whenever he heard the suffering of servants and slaves or the tales of how they had come to be there, but, at times, it still managed to catch his ever hopeful heart by surprise. The bruising force of heartache throbbed acutely in his chest, but Yuugi bit his tongue and stilled his shivering form. Hatsu was one of the only ones who seemed to detect the fire that lay underneath Yuugi's deceptively timid nature, the defiance and fight that threatened to erupt from him at times.

Still though, despite his efforts otherwise, Yuugi must have done something that the men found insulting, because when Yuugi dared to flicker his wide eyes to the two masters they looked back at him with frowns; one with a frown of contempt, one with a frown of disapproval. Yuugi stood fists clenched at his sides, lower lip harshly trapped between his teeth and upper lip thinned and tightened, irises consumed by pupils stretched in fear, awaiting his fate with terrible dread. He wished to scream, to cry, to protest or runaway, and to his great misfortune these feelings danced like heathen spirits across his features. Surely he was doomed now.

"It will do me no good to take one so unwilling to go, Ahknadin," the other said quietly, "Fright can be assuaged, but fight and despair can only be conquered, and I have no wish to do such a thing. I turn to my pleasure servants for their named purpose, not to see their tears of pain or anger. If the child does not give protest beyond those of infantile petulance then willingly will I take the boy. If the boy, however, cannot agree to leave without flight or fight then I will not accept him. I will not suffer toddlers who need coddling in place of servants."

Ahknadin's eyes narrowed in anger, his face contorted demonically in the shadow of torchlight. Yuugi's master looked as though he wished to curse the boy's name, but restrained himself from doing so. Even so, disappointment of a foiled plan tainted his words. "If that is the case, so be it, I have no wish to burden you with faulty servants Noble Ashai. If he displeases you for any reason then we shall not dally with his presence another moment, if you wish there are also a few rather pretty girls here under my care. They are nothing quite as exotic as this one, but pleasing to the eye nonetheless."

Tea! Yuugi's eyes, which had drifted dutifully and dismally to the dirt, snapped back up on their own accord. Was Tea, his precious friend, one of the girls his master spoke of? Certainly she was beautiful, with dark hair and glowing golden skin, and more exotic than most with her large blue eyes and long lashes; could she be the one next singled out by his master for sale? Tea had been bought and paid for by one man already, she could just as easily be bought and sold again. Tea, poor Tea; Yuugi's mind shuddered at the thought, the image of her mourning her days as an unwilling lover, a bird crushed within golden chains. No, he could not let her suffer such a possibility!

"I will go."

Who said those words? For a moment the sound of them, the voice that spoke them, were both so foreign that Yuugi did not realize that he was the one who had uttered them. But it was he who had spoke them, he realized with a sting of shock. It was he himself who had finally decided his own fate. To save his friend from such a future he had willingly sacrificed his own.

The two masters and one servant turned back from their path toward the estate's center to the shaking -year-old. Eyes dropping from their faces to their chests Yuugi dropped forward again in a slight bow. "Forgive me Masters for speaking, but I will go. If it pleases my master then it pleases me," despite his words he felt a roll of sickness as he repeated the phrase Kahotep had committed to his memory. Ahknadin wasted no time in taking advantage of those very words.

"Well then my friend," his soon-to-be former master placed a guiding hand on his future master's shoulder. "If that bodes well for you then let us go discuss the details of our exchange," with a wave of his hand in the direction of the main house both masters and one servant departed, leaving only one servant behind.

Yuugi barely stood, shaking so badly from shock and fear that his legs threatened to give way. This was it, this was to be his future. He was to be used and discarded for the rest of his days by the changing desires of one man. And which was worse, that he would be demanded to fulfill sexual pleasures or that he might be asked to indulge imitations of affection and love with empty whispers and falsely doting actions?

Yuugi had heard of how some servants prayed for the day when they might enter the leisurely life of a courtesan, to hopefully rise to the place of a favored one or perhaps even a wife. Never before had he understood it and now, bitterly, he despised the idea even more.

With weak legs and an even weaker heart the small servant boy carried himself away from this unlikely scene of tragedy, through the courtyard and to his small reserved space in a small storage room within the women's quarters. He passed by unable to see anyone around him, unable to hear either noise or silence. Alone in the darkness he reached his destination without being aware of it, only noticing when a familiar wall blocked any further steps and the well known feeling of his straw mat touched his feet. He sank in despair on the lumpy pile of cloth and straw and shivered.

Normally he did not mind his small space beside the great urns of soaps and waxes, despite being alone he usually felt rather safe tucked back there, but tonight the darkness and loneliness ached fiercely. He wished to run back to the women's rooms that he had been allowed to stay in until his eleventh year, or to run to Tea's room and seek her embrace for comfort, but he was no longer welcomed by the other women. He was no longer just a boy but one fast approaching manhood, despite his youthful looks, and even if he could sneak in beside Tea for comfort, the girl was already so tired that he did not wish to disturb her.

As much as he wished to cry on her shoulder and to hear her soothing optimism he just as badly wanted to never tell her what had happened tonight. Shame, fear, anger, despondency...they all pressed upon his mind until he was near completely overwhelmed. So badly did he wish to close his eyes and wake tomorrow from this nightmare, as badly as he had wished when he had fallen asleep his first night in Pharaoh's palace, as badly as he had wished when his mother had died. The ache of an awful burden had fallen on his heart and mind. Thick tears began to slide down his face in rivets. Drained, the boy fell to his side completely, drawing his knees to his chest and wrapping himself up within his own arms, attempting to seek comfort in the facsimile of another's embrace.

Slowly the boy's eyes began to close, the gods having finally taken pity on his form. As he slipped under the blessed waves of dark unconsciousness he whispered two words to the still air.

"...Mother...Father..."

_Please save me from this fate._

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! <strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I don't own Yu Gi Oh. **

**Okay, not gonna lie, I was really disappointed after posting the last chapter and now I'm filled with some doubts. After the increasing decrease in reviews I checked out the stats on the story hoping that maybe ppl were just reviewing less and still reading...but the number of readers has been continually dropping off each chapter too...I'm pretty bummed about it. So, is it getting worse? Does it just suck? I'd really appreciate any input you guys have. Seriously, suggestions, critiques, telling me it sucks, whatever, I'd really love to hear anyone's ideas. As always, thanks for reading and reviewing those who have. I don't mean to be overly whiny or needy but I really would like to know what people think. **

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 5<strong>

_**"The Rescue"**_

When Kahotep arrived at the estate of Guardian Ahknadin he was not terribly surprised to find the boy known as Yuugi so unhappy. What he was surprised to hear, however, was the story the boy told him. Though it was not the boy himself who first began the tale.

"Yuugi," he commanded sternly, "tell me yourself all that has happened."

Yuugi up from the ground miserably and looked momentarily from his red-faced friend, Tea if the servant could remember correctly, to Kahotep himself before looking back down at his feet in something akin to embarrassed remorse. His neglected basket of washed linen sat by his feet, water darkening the dry earth below. The naked clothesline bowed slightly in the stiff breeze.

"Yuugi, tell him what happened!" The girl Tea, face still flushed in anger after her own recount of the story, cried out in frustration at her meeker friend.

The boy in question looked up, opened his mouth slightly, then bit down harshly on his lip and looked back to the ground, shrugging up his shoulders as if to hide himself from view. He stayed that way even as Kahotep stared at him and Tea tried to cajole him into speaking, more reticent than ever.

"Yuugi," Kahotep sighed, "I can do nothing if you refuse to tell me what has happened here."

Tea actually looked up and regarded the man with unabashed surprise. "You can do something Kahotep?" her eyebrows raised slightly, "Then do something! You have to do something to keep him here!" She stamped her foot in emphasis.

"That is not what he means Tea, is it Master Kahotep?"

When the servant and the girl turned they saw Yuugi, lip clenched back between teeth, looking at Kahotep with an expression of insight beyond his years.

"I appreciate all that you wish to do, Master Kahotep, but...even you do not think there is much you can do, do you? Even if you could alter my master's decision...how long would it be until he sent me away again? How much worse would that place be? Is that not what you are thinking Master?"

"Yuugi..." Tea trailed off, her face screwed in shock.

Kahotep felt it as well. Yuugi was never this pessimistic. At least, not on the surface. For a moment the pharaoh's servant remained silent, wondering darkly how little he actually knew about the child he had come to view as his personal responsibility. Then his face hardened into a displeased frown.

"Little Yuugi, you speak disrespectfully of my intentions and your service. It is true, I doubt I can keep you here safely," he ignored Tea's brief unhappy cry, "But I may be able to find a place for you where you will be free from the rule of Guardian Ahknadin, if not his sight.

"You must do exactly as I say to you now Yuugi. You will act as though you are not in the least bit unhappy with your master's declarations or decisions. I ask you not to act as a good servant now Yuugi, as you have always been, but a faithful servant. Do you understand what I mean Yuugi?"

The boy frowned in bemusement, but nodded nonetheless. "I think so."

Kahotep nodded back in return. "Good. Yuugi, you must follow every order without hesitation, no, not just without hesitation, but with true pleasure. Do not make yourself seem suspicious, but do not fail to make yourself seem anything other than joyed to fulfill the desires of your master and mistress. Whatever task you are commanded to, be grateful for." He paused to let the words sink in.

"I will be leaving in two days time. I do not know how long I will be gone for, or if I will see you again before I know the success of my plannings, but if all goes well I will see you within three months time. In the mean time be patient and do not give any reason to call your loyalty to your house or master into question. Can you do all that is asked of you?"

There was a pause as Yuugi carefully considered the question, giving serious weight to his ability to meet the demands asked. Finally the boy gave a slightly hesitant, but firm nod; he let out a small noise in confirmation of his assent.

"Alright then. Yuugi, you must do as I have told you; if you are to make one mistake now, no matter how insignificant it may seem, what chance there is at changing your determined fate will die in that very instant. Do you understand what I speak?"

"Yes." Yuugi could feel Tea's eyes darting anxiously between the two of them; she was clearly uncomfortable not only with the situation, but with the gravity both men were able to treat it. It was what divided she and Yuugi and what bonded Yuugi and Kahotep; they both understood something about the predicament that Tea was unaware of and it was obviously fraying at her nerves.

"I must retire now," Kahotep shifted and the spell of their connection was severed, the matter apparently finished for discussion. Then with an unexpectedly tiny, soft smile he placed a hand on Yuugi's shoulder. "Do not fear, Little One, for all is not lost yet. Pray to the Gods as I will that Almighty Ra sees fit to cast you with such good fortune once more."

He turned to leave the two adolescents behind, stiff and stern once more. He had, however, made it no more than five or six steps when he looked back over his shoulder and spoke just loudly enough that the two children present could barely make out his words as they strained to hear him.

"Tea," grim tone butchering her name, "I trust you not to speak a single word of this to anyone. No one may know what words were said here today."

"Y-yes," Tea's surprise at the direct address was evident, but despite her barest hint of hesitance, Kahotep was already almost out of sight by the time she had responded.

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><p>Kahotep sat down in the bare servants quarters he was roomed in, grateful for its surprising emptiness.<p>

After a heavy exhale and deep inhale the young man composed himself once more and settled into a meditative position. His eyes fell closed.

"Goddess Isis, forgive me, for what I am about to do is not with intent of causing harm to your living son. Almighty Ra, please guide my mind so that I may find the answers I need to save the innocent known as 'Yuugi'."

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><p>"Yuugi..." Tea trailed off, uncertain of what to say next. Her elbows flared in front of her chest, her hands clasped by her mouth as though in prayer. Finally the girl regained her voice only to lose it again as she choked on her cried words.<p>

"Why Yuugi, why?" she demanded; tears slid down to create muddy tracks on her cheeks and darken her dress. "Why did you agree to leave? Why did you let Ahknadin win like that?"

Yuugi said nothing; he kept his head tilted down and away from his best friend, shielding his face from her accusations. His fists remained clenched tightly at his sides.

"Why Yuugi?" Tea flew at him, her hands outreached to grab and force her friend to face her.

Her hands stopped just short of his shoulders; her fingers recoiled as if they had been burnt.

"Yuugi," she said softly again.

Yuugi was not tensed in avoidance, as she had assumed, but shaking. His whole frame spasmed with tremors plentiful enough to nearly force him to his knees. Barely contained choked cries were escaping from his throat in an infantile manner. Sudden movement alarmed Tea to the presence of an object dropping from Yuugi's chin to the dry earth below, where it was swiftly joined by more of its brethren.

"Please Yuugi, please tell me why you agreed to leave." Tea grabbed at him once more in her agony, turning him so that they could speak face-to-face; Yuugi stubbornly kept his face down and eyes averted, determined to not comply.

"Te...a..." he managed in between shuddering breaths. He shook his head over and over again. "Tea!" With a cry the dam he had built ripped along the seam and tore apart; tremors became body-wracking shudders under the weight of his despair.

Tea pulled him quickly against her and ran her hand into the thick ebony locks on the back of his head, pressing his face into her chest. Too overwrought by his pain to even be embarrassed, Yuugi clutched fistfuls of her rough, brown robes as he sobbed into her warm body; he was only dimly aware of the way her hands wrapped to touch his head and back, the touch so reminiscent of the mother he had lost so very long ago, and the way Tea's hot tears fell on his neck as she buried her face into his hair.

They stood like that for a time; momentarily lost and uncaring for the duties they had to return to. They stayed rooted to the spot until their tears ceased and Yuugi's body had stilled a few moments later. And then, scratching at their tear-stained cheeks with the rough material of their coarse linen dress, only gave one another a solemn nod before turning in opposite directions to resume the tasks that lay in wait for them.

Even in their grief servants were bound by rules.

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><p>Though he had no altar to bow before, and no offering other than his pledge of faith and loyalty to his gods, Kahotep spent much of the next two days in prayer.<p>

A servant, no matter how respected or praised, was never to ask his master for anything in return for his servitude, nor was he to be deceptive or deceitful. Kahotep had lived by these rules since he had come under the care of his master Great Pharaoh; he had abided by them, made others to follow them, forced the very world of servants within the world of the palace to learn and pay proper respect to them under ominous and unspoken threat, and now, now matter how seemingly benign the reason, Kahotep was about to break those very laws that had governed his existence. He was about to not only set his master's mind in a new direction, but to do so while convincing Pharaoh the idea had been his own in the first place. No matter how vile, how despicable he might have found his actions yesterday, or tomorrow, he was convinced it was the only way to save his young charge from his current fate. He was determined to save the boy from anything that would cause him such misery.

If there had been any other way, any other means to save Yuugi, Kahotep would have done it gladly, but the fact remained that he could think of none, and there was no time to spare in implementing his plan. If Kahotep were late, if Yuugi was taken away, there would be no hope of saving him. Once Yuugi had become another's property no one would be able to lawfully reach him.

And so it was that on the third day, when Kahotep left with a small party and the company of Ahknadin back toward Pharaoh's palace, before even Ra had begun his journey across the sky, the personal servant of the most powerful man in all of Kehmet began to put his plan into action.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reviewing and please leave me any comments you have.<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Ughh, I apologize guys, this should have been out a while ago, but mad finals/papers, plus trying to get a second job :( There's so many people I have to thank and thank you all for being so patient with me, both in waiting for chapters and thanks and for reading this! I forewarn that I did proofread this chapter, but not to the extent I usually do because I was so eager to post it, so I may slightly revise some parts over the next few days if I reread it and am not satisfied. Anyways you guys are great and I 3 you all to pieces for reading this! Thank you so much! More notes at the end!**

**I don't own Yu Gi Oh and I make no money from this.**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 6<strong>

**_"Evening's Glow & Dawn's Light"_**

Pharaoh Akunamukanon watched with a glow of fatherly pride as his son practiced his sword fighting with the weapons master.

"He will be sixteen years of age soon," he said to seemingly no one; near the pharaoh his guards stood attentive and silent, his hand servant stood behind him, respectfully quiet to Pharaoh's musings. "What a fine son has Isis blessed me with. Though I hope he will soon grow out of these childish antics of his." Akunamukanon frowned as his teenaged son took a moment to laugh heartily at the expense of his cousin as he whirled and hit the unsuspecting young man across the backside with the flat of his sword.

"Atemu!"

Immediately Atemu straightened and quieted himself at the sound of his father's voice. In the face of his father's noble stride towards him Atemu became the picture of regal perfection: erect and proud, an elegant solemnity gracing his features; the only thing he always failed to erase was the childish impishness that danced deep within his eyes and glint of excessive reckless energy brought on by youth.

"Father," he greeted in reply, and bit his lip to quell his laughter as his cousin fought to quickly right himself, bow, and wipe the look of wrath and promised revenge simultaneously as the great ruler of Upper and Lower Kehmet approached.

"Pharaoh," the deep voice next to him echoed, as smooth and graceful as one born of Isis herself.

Akunamukanon nodded briefly to his nephew as he rose before turning back to his son, once again 'Father', not 'Pharaoh'.

"Atemu," he admonished sternly, "sword play is not something to be taken so lightly. When you take my place as pharaoh the enemies of Kehmet will not be so indulgent of your jests, and neither will your cousin's buttocks."

The pharaoh's son once again found himself stifling erupting giggles as his cousin blushed and uttered a just audible indignant grunt akin to a growl from within his throat.

"The celebration of your birth soon approaches Atemu. You will be of sixteen years of age, you are no longer a child. It may to be time for you to consider who you will have rule by your side; I am not so young in body that you have the freedom to ignore your future and its duties."

With the utmost love and respect and the barest of restrained cheekiness the prince returned, "But Father is so strong and noble! How could the gods see fit to take you in any near future?"

Akunamukanon's tight features softened and fell with love for his son. With a defeated sigh he let his mouth form into a smile that crinkled the edges of his eyes and filled them with sparkling warmth. "Nor, would I hope to depart so soon Atemu," he shook his head gently, never jostling the crowning symbol of his reign, "But I think, Atemu, that following your celebration you will become better acquainted with what it means to be Pharaoh."

"Father?" Atemu's voice raised in question as his brow furrowed in confusion.

The switch from father to Pharaoh again was immediate; with a last firm, but kind, shake of the head Atemu's inquisition was preeminently halted. "We will discuss it later. Go on, back to your practice."

Though curiosity and bemusement still skewed his youthful face the prince gave the firm nod of a future ruler and made to turn back to his awaiting partner and the weapons' master. Just as his shoulder had nearly completed its rotation something warm and rough stopped him. Atemu's eyes touched on his father's hand as it rested on his shoulder, where its grandness and heavy weight lay placidly.

Before Atemu could utter the question, mouth opened and vocal chords beginning their vibrations, Akunamukanon's low tones commanded his attention.

"Do me proud son," was all that he said, with a gentle squeeze of the young man's shoulder, but the awesome effect it had on the prince was evident.

Immediately Atemu straightened as best he could, as though trying to reach his father's height, his shoulders drew back and his chest puffed out. There was a gleam in his brilliant eyes and a grave, earnest, seriousness when he spoke. "I will Father!"

The smallest of smiles graced the pharaoh's visage and he dropped the hand away as moved from his son.

From his post Kahotep watched Father and Son and listened to their words, noting each and every one as he tried his best to appear deaf and blind to all he was not asked to observe.

He had known what he had to accomplish and now he was certain through what measures it must be done. Now he had only to discover how to give motion to his plans.

By the time Akunamukanon had once again reached the spot where his guards and servant stood sentry the king of Kehmet was again smiling fondly as he glanced back at his son every so often, who, in light of his father's words, had returned to his sparring with renewed vigor and devotion, much to the apparent approval of his partner and cousin.

While Akunamukanon watched his son his most faithful servant stared obediently at the shadowed outline of his master spread across the stone ground. And while the Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Kehmet began to hum a soft, pleasant tune, Kahotep gazed on with the patience of a snake and the guilt of a house dog, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

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><p>That evening, after all of the pharaoh's hand servants had helped their great king prepare for the night and left, the pharaoh's most trusted servant finally made his move.<p>

As the two of them remained, and the torchlight flickered against the wall and the candlelight glowed, Kahotep sank to his knees upon the floor. Fluidly he bent forward, pushing his hands forward with his head down almost to the floor, and stayed there perfectly still and silent, waiting to be recognized by his master.

"What is it Kahotep?"

"My Almighty Pharaoh, it is a matter concerning the prince."

"What about my son?" Akunamukanon's voice was serious, but without anger, for the moment. However loyal and trusted he might have been considered Kahotep knew that his words here had to be chosen wisely and cautiously.

"My Almighty Pharaoh, I give my humblest apologies, but I have heard Pharaoh speaking to his Council in the matter of increasing the responsibilities of the prince." Here Kahotep paused momentarily, hesitant as he once again weighed the audacity of his question against the necessity of it. The image of Yuugi's face, listless and wan with irrevocable despair amidst a scene of plush bedding and fine silk, gave him the resolve he needed. "Great Pharaoh, forgive me, but I wondered if he might need his own hand servant now."

Silence was the response Kahotep's musing received and he dared not lift his head to capture the gaze of his master. For the first time since his first years of service to the pharaoh his heart beat with uncharacteristic fear. His pharaoh was a kind one who treated his personal servant with more respect than duty dictated, but Kahotep knew that men in his position had been sentenced to death for raising their eyes to meet Pharaoh's, let alone boldly offering up suggestions that questioned the pharaoh's capabilities in prevision and planning.

"Rise Kahotep," and as his obediently brought his hands and head from the floor continued. "It is difficult to hear your words when to speak them to the ground." There was an amused tone in his voice and a twitch of a smile on his regal features that grew as the eunuch's face flushed with a rosy hue.

"My humblest apologies Great Pharaoh." The words came out only slightly better than a mumble from the dignified servant with his eyes still cast toward Pharaoh's feet.

Akunamukanon set the apologies aside with a wave of his hand. "It is a trivial matter. In the long time I have known you I have never known you to speak without much thought and foresight, so, my trusted servant, I assume there is a candidate you already have in mind for the distinguished position as the most intimate of all my son's servants, the one who must be most loyal and above all reproach?"

"Yes, My Great Pharaoh, the boy named Yuugi—who once stood before your throne eight years ago alongside his mountain chief father who begged for your care over his own child." Still Kahotep's eyes did not rise, but his voice was, while still humble, strong and confident once more, sure of his purpose and mission.

Akunamukanon held up a hand to halt any further words from the kneeling servant. "I remember Kahotep. Ah yes, one father never forgets witnessing such pain in another. And how is the boy? I am certain you have not neglected to watch over the growth of your charge."

Kahotep's eyes lifted to Akunamukanon's chest as he answered. "He is small," he spoke truthfully, "and poorly suited for demanding physical labor assigned to most young men of his age, but he is adept at the domestic duties he has been given all these years."

"And what is his disposition?"

"His father's predictions were correct, Great Pharaoh. The boy is hard-working and steadfast in his loyalty to his master and his master's household. The only fight in him is to protect, never will he be disobedient to the one he serves." For ill or good Kahotep knew it in his heart to be true; Yuugi's great reluctance to resist any order was both the greatest asset and worst flaw that Kahotep had carefully taught him.

The pharaoh gave a thoughtful hum as his gaze bore into the top of Kahotep's head. "Still Kahotep, he is not like you. What is to say that he will not seek out a wife and child?"

"Great Pharaoh I do not see such a future for him. The boy's appearance clearly marks him a foreigner such as myself; I see no woman of Kehmet who would lie with him and bear his offspring, nor has the boy spoken of any such inclinations. I believe the boy to be like myself in intent and purpose."

When Akunamukanon next spoke there was a gravity in his voice that increased the weight of each word ten-fold. "And would you swear his loyalty to my son Kahotep? Would you place Atemu's ears, Atemu's life, in his trust?"

"I would, My Almighty Pharaoh. I am certain he would lay down his life for the prince's as surely as I would for My Pharaoh. I would place my life on that answer without hesitation." Kahotep dared to let his eyes flicker to meet the pharaoh's own for the briefest of moments before returning his gaze to his lord's chest.

"Do you understand what you are saying Kahotep?" Akunamukanon's voice was softer, but still somber, vaguely touched with an intonation of sympathy directed at the servant that did not befit his status.

Once again Kahotep's eyes darted up quickly as he answered his king. "Yes, Great Pharaoh. I stake both Yuugi's life and my own on his ability and loyalty in serving the prince." No sooner had he finished than Kahotep's eyes fell once again, his own heart perturbed by the duration of which his eyes had locked with his pharaoh's own.

There was a pause and the air about them hung still and hot. In Kahotep's own chest his heart beat as furiously and steadfastly as any war drum. It was a moment of agony before the great king spoke.

"I will trust your judgment Kahotep, for you are my most unquestionably constant and trusted of subjects in all your years of service, and I will hold you to your word. At the midday meal you will fetch my brother for me."

"Of course, My Almighty Pharaoh."

Just as slowly as the weighty matter had risen it was diffused equally quick. Kahotep returned to silently fulfilling his duties, readying his lord for bed as Pharaoh Akunamukanon received each progression of the well-worn routine with neither praise nor condemnation. When finally the Great Pharaoh of Kehmet had laid his head down, Kahotep, kneeling and bowed on the floor beside Pharaoh's bed, blew out the candle in his hand, rose in the darkness and soundlessly crossed the floor he knew by heart to the small alcove within his master's bedchamber that served to house his bare cot, where he would remain ever-ready to serve his pharaoh's every whim.

Tonight, however, laid down in the darkness with the faint sound of Pharaoh's serene breathing filling the air, Kahotep let his mind wander from thoughts of his master. In Kahotep's heart there was a fluttering of happiness, contentedness, he had never known before meeting the small child he had taken under his wing. Despite how erratically Yuugi's existence had changed his behavior, how reckless that boy had unwittingly made him become, there was a rapturous joy in securing Yuugi's freedom from an unwanted fate.

"_One day,"_ he mused with a small, genuine smile, _"One day you will sleep in this very cot Yuugi, and you will watch over Pharaoh as I do, and you will be a guardian of the Morning and the Evening Star. You will be as devoted and dutiful as any faithful wife, and just as you will watch over him so will you be sheltered in the shadow of his magnificence. Pharaoh, now and years from now, is good. There is no better being in this mortal plane; you will be treated justly, and any punishment will be well-earned, and I will make certain you will never warrant severity here."_

Kahotep let his eyelids slide shut and fell into a sleep deeper and more peaceful than he had ever known, smiling all the while as he dreamed pleasant dreams.

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><p>"Come, hurry Yuugi! I will make you ready yet before I let you be seen by the Living Horus!"<p>

"Sorry Kahotep! I—I am trying!" Yuugi spoke without truly looking up, his back still turned to the approaching voice. He was supposed to be ready, but the cloth in his hands still slipped in his moist, trembling grip. He had seen these garments countless times, helped wash and dry them—every other male servant, boy or man, had worn these in his former master's home, but still he could not get the seemingly simplistic covering to adhere to his will. His attempts to tie or wrap the ends only served to leave the cloth slipping from his small waist and straight hips, dangling dangerously and provocatively.

Once more he moved his fingers to weave a knot, tense with suspense and he readied to seal it, only to have it fall apart in his hands again with the entire shenti falling from his grasp to the floor below. Yuugi bit back a cry of frustration; he was determined not to fail Kahotep's hopes and yet he already was!

"You are not even dressed yet!"

Choking on his gasp, Yuugi instinctively turned to the commanding voice behind him. Almost instantaneously he was entirely red-faced, cupping himself and cringing inward to hide his exposed state, but not daring to turn his back on Kahotep even at his greatest moment of humiliation. For all of Yuugi's embarrassment, however, the other male seemed completely unfazed by his nudity, his naturally cool features marked only by a stern frown and a tic of irritation.

One look into that face full of ire and Yuugi was once more cowering in the face of his revered mentor, bowing his head as the flush of shame unfurled itself across his skin.

"I-I am sorry. I will do better, I promise." He nearly whispered his solemn vow to the ground; it was only by the unusual astuteness of Kahotep's ears, self-taught to listen for every utterance and nuance concerning his pharaoh, that the soft words were heard at all.

"Yuugi."

The boy lifted his head still in his half-crouch, and watched as the harried visage of Pharaoh's servant softened just a fraction as something in the eyes gave way and the frown about his mouth momentarily relaxed. He lifted from his side a neatly folded bundle and presented it to the younger boy with both hands lightly, but firmly holding, like a priest presenting a sacred writing to his young disciple. "Here," he said, with a hint of gentleness easily missed, "I thought these might suit you better."

If Kahotep was aware of Yuugi's immense discomfort at his naked state he gave no sign of empathy; he waited with his hands still outstretched, forcing Yuugi to, shame-faced, take several bashful steps to meet his mentor. Out of necessity he finally dropped his hands, feeling hotter than he knew he rightfully should so enclosed in the cool earth, and lifted them to receive the soft bundle in his guardian's hands.

It was cloth—a whitish linen. When he let the bottom fall away to unravel the material and expose its shape a gasp of happy exclamation escaped him. It was a long tunic, nearly the same as the one he had worn in Ahknadin's household. Yuugi eagerly pulled the garment over his head, quickly covering nearly every inch of visible skin on his small frame. When his head poked through the appropriate hole he caught Kahotep regarding him with an odd look, barely visible and something Yuugi could not quite place.

"What is wrong? Did I do something?" Yuugi peered at Kahotep with a pleading in his eyes; any disquiet in his normally stoic guide perturbed him greatly. The entire fate of the world might as well have rested on a twitch of Kahotep's brow, as far as he was concerned.

The look sank back into the recesses of the elder's being, disappearing from the light in his eyes as his focus sharpened. He looked at Yuugi and, while his subject seemed to wait with halted breath under the penetrating stare, stepped forward to place his hands by his pupil's neck; his brief hesitance was the only thing to give evidence to his mind's unsettled state.

"It fits you well," Kahotep slid his hands out across the youth's undeveloped shoulders as if to smooth out some imperceptible wrinkle in the fabric, "I had worried it still might be too long for you. I have left some fabric at the bottom; when you grow you can let it out again."

"Thank you Kahotep," the boy breathed out. So this was where the miraculous article of clothing had come from. No doubt it was one of Kahotep's own few garments, hemmed by his own hands for the sake of his charge; just one more of the many wondrous gifts Kahotep had given him.

Kahotep's hands retracted from their hold on Yuugi and fell to his sides with dignity. "You are welcome Yuugi," was his stiff reply.

A moment of silence befell them as they stood in the same chamber as they had eight years ago, on that fateful night when both of their lives, as well as many unknowing others, had been forever changed in their course.

"Yuugi," Kahotep's voice was tepid and fluid, and laden with something painful. He looked not at Yuugi, but down and away, yet his voice still undoubtedly commanded attention. "The time has come. Tomorrow you will rise to serve your new master; the master above all others in this world. The Morning and Evening stars will be your guiding lights and you will follow them, living to aid in their shine. You will never place anyone above them; no man can ever rise to meet the stars, let alone surpass them. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

At the sound of the adamant resolution Kahotep's head snapped up and caught Yuugi's gaze with his own, taking in the firmed mouth and crystal clear amethyst eyes narrowed in determination; the tiniest, softest of smiles surfaced on his sullen visage.

"Very well, Yuugi, then I will leave you here. This is where you will sleep until the prince calls for you elsewhere. And remember Yuugi," he pointed to a square and strap of linen lying beside the forgotten shenti and spoke with his commonplace sternness and a tightened brow. "Never forget to cover your head. Unless you are commanded by the prince, Almighty Pharaoh or his council you are never to let anyone see your uncovered head. Do you understand the gravity of my words?"

"Yes, Kahotep."

With an outstretched hand the elder mentor his palm gently on Yuugi's shoulder and gave it a squeeze so soft it was barely felt by its recipient. "Goodnight then Yuugi, sleep well and bear pleasant thoughts in mind. I will come for you before Ra's start across the sky."

Like the gentlest of evening winds the tanned hand slipped from the boy's tiny shoulder and Kahotep turned, not leaving the barest of breezes in the wake of his movement.

"Kahotep?"

Pharaoh's hand servant arrested himself and turned fully back around to regard his younger pupil. "Yes Yuugi?"

The boy, quietly but earnestly, gazed up through amethyst, emotion gently lapping at the surface of dual limpid pools. "Thank you Kahotep."

Once more a look of unequivocal tranquility touched the servant's face, graced by a small, sincere smile. "You are welcome Yuugi. Now sleep." And without another word he turned and passed from the room of cots and mats, footsteps never echoing through the tunnel-like chambers.

No sooner had Yuugi been left in the relative privacy of the open, unoccupied room than he darted across the dirt floor to where his old clothing lay in a bundle, their last place before they were surely given to another servant, one not seen in the company of the future pharaoh so often.

He picked them up and slowly pulled apart the sown together pouch within one sleeve, careful to save the coarse piece of thread binding it together. From within he removed a piece of golden jewelry, shiny dully even in the dimmed light, its fierce ruby gaze untouched by the passage of time as it stared into the eyes of its beholder.

"_Hello Father_,_ hello Mother_," the whisper came to the phoenix in a tongue that had not been spoken in nearly a decade. "_Mother_, _I will be safe here_,_ please look after _Tea_ now_, _as you have looked over me for so long_. _Father_, _I am here now_, _where you first brought me_, _again_. _Father I will not disappoint you_."

With a quick glance about to ensure privacy Yuugi dropped to a crouch and lifted his new garment from his body and turned it inside-out, picking up a single sleeve and draping the long body over his shoulder down his back, not daring to let it touch the floor below. Learned fingers moved to dance with thread as he plucked the needle of bone sliver from behind his ear. When his hands started to roam over the sleeve, however, they stumbled upon a pocket by the bottom base. It was of unknown age, but well-maintained and recently sown with strong, fresh thread. First he blinked in silent surprise before righting the robe to its proper state and place as he pulled it back on over his head. A quiet murmur of thanks and praise passed from his lips as he slid his precious sole piece of property into the pouch and for the first time since he had come to Kehmet left the pouch unsealed, enjoying the comfort in dipping a sole finger into the slender pocket to feel the filigree of his ancestors.

The last of his energy extinguished Yuugi found a cot along the wall, set for his own use. Momentarily he paused before it, shifting with ill-ease at its foreign position a foot above the floor. Silently and surreptitiously he pulled the bedding from its place and carried it far away from the other cots and mats upon the floor, bringing it back to the corner by a pair of large storage jugs before dropping it and setting it again there.

He laid down and tried to shut his eyes, to find his much needed slumber, but unlike the first time he had slept in this very room his reeling mind could not escape to the sanctum of the world of dreaming. Instead he found his gaze looming upward at the ceiling and his heart racing at the idea of what was to come tomorrow, the start of a new life—his new life. Once more he was to begin again and forget all that come before—his friends, his joys and sorrows, his anger and grudges, they were all to be forgotten with his new pledge to his new master. His new master who would one day rule all of the land he would ever see, a master who was already much revered simply because of who he would one day become, a master whose face he did not even know and whose wondrous attributes he could attest to only through repetition of Kahotep's own praises. For nearly all his life his fate had been a circumstance easily disrupted and altered by the hands of others, and yet he still could not ease the painful tension in his belly.

No longer would he be left in relative peace, and no longer would he be able to find solace in his seclusion. Now and forever he would be not only at the beck and call of his master but a constant at his side, awaiting and anticipating the smallest of orders with a strained ear.

For a long while these thoughts pulled at his anxious mind as he wondered fearfully and curiously at what, and who, Prince Atemu, the future pharaoh of Upper and Lower Kehmet, was. Would he be kind or cruel? Was he a handsome ruler, a capable one? He would likely be confident, arrogant, haughty even, would he not? Or perhaps would he be small and shy and unassuming?

Surreptitiously, as such questions darted to and fro in Yuugi's mind the great Tutu graciously pushed the bad dreams and worries dancing in the boy's head, watching over the child as he descended slowly from a fretful, fitful sleep to a sound slumber, until finally, just as other weary servants began to file into the chamber he fell completely unawares to the world of the wakeful living, where he stayed until a small, warm hand jostled his shoulder.

"Yuugi," the brown-skinned, blond-haired man called in his light voice, "Come Yuugi, it is time to rise. Today is the day; today you meet your new master."

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><p><strong>AN: *Tutu is the Egyptian god who watched over people sleeping and chased away demonsbad dreams (fyi I got this from google so forgive me if I'm horribly wrong, I couldn't find it in my book on A. Egyptian daily life)**

**Also, if some of you are wondering why Kahotep is freaking out over something that may not seem like a big deal, he's the kind of guy who is hardcore about following the rules and his own code of conduct, which for him means never doing a single thing that he feels might appear to be being ungrateful to the pharaoh. If you're curious at all about his motivations, some of them might be revealed in the story, but since he's my only oc here and I have a background on him, message me if you're curious and want a synopsis of his history.**

**Thanks so much for reading! I really love and appreciate all reviews and feedback! And as always thanks for the reviews/faves/alerts already given! See you soon! FYI, Atemu and Yuugi do meet next chap!**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Okay guys, news update: 1) I sincerely apologize for how long it took to get this chapter up. Partially it was life reasons, but also because this is actually, literally, one-half of what the chapter originally was. Because it was so long I decided to chop it in half a) because it'll fit with other chapter lengths, b) the next chapter is pretty much done, which gives me a headstart on the following chapters.**

**This is good news actually, because I can, hopefully, now get chapters out much more quickly. That being said, the next chapter really just has to be edited and polished, so it should be up next week. After that I'm hoping to get a chapter out every 2-3 weeks. **

**It's very rewarding to know you guys are impatient to read more, and I apologize for not getting it out more quickly. Hopefully it's good enough to make up for it. Also, I apologize because the end may seem very abrupt, but I _guarantee _the next chapter will be out by the 9th, one week from today.**

**I don't own Yu Gi Oh! And thanks again for all the alerts, faves, and reviews guys. I really appreciate them, and I'm especially thankful for those who take time to write a review (lol, we all know how tempting it is to not do so).**

**Nerdvi: because I can't message you...Thank you for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the story and thank you for reading. I'm sorry for the frustration...both in posting delays and the slow buildup (it's my folly, constantly) but hopefully it's worth the wait and the next chapter will be up soon!**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 7<strong>

_**"Promises, Warnings, and Celebrations"**_

The peace of the day, as Yuugi soon realized, had long since been disrupted by the time he rose.

No sooner had he quietly passed through the silent chamber, still half-filled with waking servants, than he entered a scene of chaos the likes of which his wide, youthful eyes had never before seen.

Everywhere there was bustling: heavy men carrying great loads and enormous vats barreling by, plain-faced servant women, their prettier counterparts already upstairs, laden down with trays and baskets, and all but the youngest children scurrying about in the madness, cleaning and serving. The rich aroma of cooking food and the faint scent of yet unlit incense intermingled in the heavy air, hot with the preparations of what promised to be a lavish banquet. All around them was noise; elder servants were giving younger ones orders, pottery clinked and clacked here and there, and everywhere there was a shuffling footstep.

Yuugi's heart beat furiously in his chest, pounding so hard that for a moment he feared it would stop altogether. He had witnessed calamity in his old master's home at news of his impending arrival or on the rare occasion of guests, but never before had he seen such a splendid display of contained pandemonium.

Silently Kahotep continued on, leaving Yuugi to stare dumbstruck at his back momentarily before darting to catch up alongside him. In spite of their combined short statures and slight forms, amazingly the pool of servants continually parted for them, creating a large berth for their quick passage.

While they glided through the path, Yuugi pushing himself to keep up with Kahotep's seemingly impossible quick, graceful gait, he gazed up at his mentor. He had long since assumed that Kahotep was held in high rank amongst Pharaoh's servants, but he had been unaware of the apparent extent that respect was carried. He had to wonder, with some worry, about the legacy his predecessor had put before him.

Just before they breached the opening from their smaller passageway onto the main floor Kahotep stopped without warning, causing his pupil to barely avoid ramming into his back. The young man turned his harsh gaze on the boy and with a studied frown stared rather pointedly at his uncovered head and wildly sprouting hair. In the haste of waking this morning Yuugi, quite characteristically, and Kahotep, in a rare display of frayed nerves, had completely forgotten to attend to the unfamiliar duty.

Yuugi prepared himself for an angry rebuke and blinked with abject surprise when his mentor only turned his head to the side and offered an apparently self-directed curse. When he turned his head back he gave one curt command. "Stay in this exact spot Yuugi and do not remove yourself from the shadows. I will be back in only a moment," and just like that was gone, gliding again along the stone floor into the maze of hallways.

From his secret station Yuugi watched with rapt attention at the continuous flow of people, all guards or servants of some variety, passing by, absorbed in their own indentured tasks. Though the passageway he gazed upon was fairly silent and free of chatter the sound of talk and distant general noise promised a more rambunctious gathering close by, one that would certainly only intensify as the day and the festivities wore on.

Though he had known to expect it, it was quickly becoming clear that Yuugi had entered a level of grandiosity he had never truly experienced before. The columns and walls, even in these quiet, private halls, were decorated lavishly with depictions of men and women, the gods, goddesses, and the many royal families that had lived here over the reigns of different pharaohs. Bright colors made of expensive dyes glittered against the clean, pale stone.

Even Pharaoh's servants, most of whom must have born the same enslaved status Yuugi technically did, carried a regal air about them, and his guards' robust bodies gleamed like rough jewels, their brilliance shining through their plain dress.

So absorbed was he in his awed observations that Yuugi failed to notice the ominous shadow steadily approaching until it was almost upon him. He had only time to cry out a strangled yelp before the large hand closed fast around his arm just above a pale, raised wrist.

"Now listen here boy," Ahknadin's words came fast and furious. "You may no longer be mine, but I will be keeping two eyes on you every moment you are here. Every step you take and every word you speak will be known to me." He wasted no time in burning his point into Yuugi's young mind; the heat of his anger and hatred flowed from his flesh into the boy's own like a brand. "So if you _dare_ to reflect poorly on the home I keep I will make certain you feel any shame you attempt to put on me tenfold. And if you attempt to speak against me to Pharaoh or that son of his I can swear to you a justice so painful that it will follow you not only in this life, but well into the next as well." White spittle formed at his lip while his grip continued to tighten until Yuugi was forced to cry out in pain. "Do you understand me boy?"

"Y-yes Master," he gasped out. "I understand."

"You best," Ahknadin's sneered. "And you had better never forget it, slave."

"Ah!" Yuugi cried out as Ahknadin drove his nails into his own tender skin and suddenly turned his large hand, Yuugi's own still clutched in his fetter-like grasp. With silent pants and eyes wide he tried to bear out the pain, his slight limb straining under the weight and force of the older, stronger man.

He glanced upward, ready to beg for his freedom. A look into his captor's face made him witness to a small smirk complacently situated upon his former master's mouth and a degree of glee locked deep in his limpid gaze; supposedly he was safe here in Pharaoh's palace, but still his heart strained with fear. The answer was quite clear without having to ask the question; Mast Ahknadin would let Yuugi go when it suited his whims, and not a moment sooner.

For not the first time Yuugi wondered with an inkling of terror to what extent his former master's malice could reach.

With a final squeeze Yuugi's arm was released. The boy snatched it back to his side, gasping as the blood flowed to it again only to stir a fresh wave of scorching heat in the abused flesh.

"Do not forget your place here, slave," Ahknadin called, holding his own hand aloft as though Yuugi's light skin had left some unseen layer of filth. He strode off into the main hallway, leaving the young servant to nurse his wound and warning.

Nearby a quiet, low, "Master Ahknadin," came, less than twenty steps away. Quickly Yuugi pulled his sleeve back down, covering his reddened skin and the semicircular marks of nails.

Kahotep rounded the bend with a plain braided cord of rope and a square of linen in his hands, a frown etched deep into his features. "Yuugi, are you alright?"

"Yes," Yuugi forced a soft smile into place and clasped his hands behind his back, "yes, I am fine Kahotep."

Kahotep cast a glance down by Yuugi's side, but said nothing. Instead he moved forward after a moment's pause and held up the square of cloth with a motioned for Yuugi to push his hair back.

Quickly, but careful not to pull back his sleeve, Yuugi obediently raised his hands to his head and did his best to force his wild locks down flat against his scalp.

"Now Yuugi," Kahotep draped the fabric over Yuugi's head as he began his stoic lecture, "you must keep this over your hair whenever you are in the prince's presence or Pharaoh's, or anytime you are not in the presence of just myself or other servants...and even in the case of the latter you should be weary. You will notice you bear a certain...resemblance to the prince and it would be rather...unsettling for all to see a servant who bares any features remotely close to his master's. It could be considered a grave insult by some, mockery of his royal visage, even if it was not intentional on your part."

"Yes Kahotep."

Kahotep rolled the cloth covering his face so it formed a band that stopped at his forehead and proceeded to wrap the braided rope about Yuugi's head.

"Yuugi, you are a kind boy and I know it will be your heart's desire to form a friendship with the prince, but you must remember this Yuugi, though Prince Atemu is close in age he is far above what either you or I will ever be. He is not only your master, but a living god, one day destined to rule over all of Upper and Lower Kehmet. He will be a great master, but he cannot be your friend Yuugi. You must remember that. Promise me Yuugi."

"I promise Kahotep," he swore as the blond man finished wrapping the cord and tied a discreet knot, keeping the head covering securely in place.

"Good," Kahotep drew back, but gave his pupil a slight, genuine smile. Then, without warning, he turned on his heel and made his quick, graceful exit from the passageway to the main hall, not turning back as he spoke. "Let us go Yuugi, the prince's celebration is beginning; soon it will be time to present you to him."

Their entrance into a main corridor signaled no halt in the controlled craze of the palace staff.

Though there was a much greater amount of space to move about servants continued to flit to and fro in a continuous, congested flow, their movements unceasing. The silent duo followed the current of servants through the labyrinth of halls, passing by empty corridors that shot off theirs to paths unknown. Their own passage, however, seemed to be only ever increasing in number of travelers.

When the path became near packed, above the growing din of bare and sandal covered feet slapping against the stone floor, there rose a wave of noise reaching frenzied volumes.

Their footsteps continued to shuffle along and the righteous noise became music, chatter, and hearty laughter. Incense and the savory and sweet smells of meat and wine perfumed the air heavily enough to make the boy's head spin. The only thing blocking him from the wild display was a shroud hued like the sun, dyed golden enough to shame Ra himself.

Kahotep stopped and flashed Yuugi the palm of his hand, halting the youth in his tracks.

"Wait here Yuugi."

Yuugi's silent nod went unnoticed to Kahotep, who had already proceeded to leave the boy alone in the fray, continuing on into the main chamber where the celebration seemed to be ever growing in magnitude.

"Out of the way!"

With a gasp of surprise caught in his throat Yuugi jumped back, pressing himself flush against the wall as a short, stout man about his old master's age shoved his way past Yuugi. He was followed by a small cavalcade of silent child servants, each naked save for a loincloth and bearing a tray piled with gold and trinkets, none of them casting a glance at the overwhelmed boy they left in their wake. Just as their master passed by, his jewelery gleaming in the low light as it hung from his neck and wrists, he muttered loudly, "Damned Greeks, too stupid even for slaves," never sparing the boy he had forced aside a second look.

In a matter of minutes Yuugi had been reminded of his place in the world not once, but twice. Soon he would be given away not as his father had done eight years ago, as a beloved treasure in an act of personal sacrifice, but as a human commodity easily traded and sold. From his place against the wall Yuugi frowned at the spot where the man had stood and rubbed at the painful reminder recently received from his former master, throbbing anew from being thrown back against the hard stone.

It was not so much his place in the world that bothered him, for his memories of anything else were like wisps of straw in his hands, easily blown away and difficult to hold onto. The only tangible evidence he even had that he had ever been anything else was hidden inconspicuously in his clothing and hardly seen even by his own eyes.

"From Wawat we bring fine jewelry and boxes for His Highness Prince Atemu in celebration of his birth!" was called from the main hall, in the same voice but a much different tone than the one Yuugi had just heard.

No, he had long been resigned to his station; he had not, however, become used to the ever-changing moods of masters. Would his new master also experience such extremes in temperament?

The boy squinted at the ominous gold curtain and leaned forward, wishing and fearing to see what lay for him on the other side. Despite his best efforts, however, his eyes failed to pierce through the fabric and, with a soft uttered huff, he stopped his failing endeavor. Resting his back to the wall behind him he began to worry his lower lip between his teeth.

"Well, what would it hurt if I just moved to the edge and looked between the gap?" He whispered the question aloud as he began to tread softly on tip-toes toward the silken gate, trying desperately to keep the shaking of his legs under control.

He inched forward until he was right at the curtain's edge and pressed his cheek flush against the wall, waiting with halted breath to see what his future held in store.

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><p>Banquets, Prince Atemu had decided, were most definitely not his favorite pastime.<p>

Over the course of the last sixteen years he had become rather certain of this fact, but now, fighting off stirs of agitation, bedecked in his finest robes and best jewelry, he was beginning to ponder whether they were a form of royal torture. Though he did not mind the praise and adulation that came with them he would have much preferred a celebration that specifically involved not being confined to his seat in this warm, crowded hall.

If only there were a way to outlaw banquets.

His dark, kohl-rimmed eyes roamed through the masses standing and seated below the platform he sat at. If Mana were here there would have been some more excitement, if possibly by incidentally creating a spectacle by literally throwing herself at him and into his lap.

Atemu kept his low chuckle to himself; it might have been better after all that Mahaado and his delinquent student had been delayed on their return from their errand. Avoiding such a scene, including the inevitable scolding and pleading, from Mahaado and Mana respectively, was preferable even if it meant he was deprived of some lively company.

Though there was still good, sedate, company in his midst.

"Perhaps a game of sennet later, cousin?"

Seto made a low hum in his throat as he lowered his wine cup. "I apologize Prince. As much as I would love to join you I am afraid I must decline the invitation. My father has already given me work to do."

Chin resting on the back of his hand, Atemu turned slightly and leaned forward over the arm of his chair, one eyebrow raised. "Really? Tonight?" He dropped his hand away to expose the the edges of his curling lips. "Perhaps you and I could persuade him to be lenient."

The priest-in-training gave one curt shake of his head and looked over to Atemu's other side, where their fathers appeared deep in discussion. "No. I would rather you did not say anything at all actually."

With restrained sigh and a blink of the eye Atemu straightened and turned his gaze to where his cousin's had landed. "I suppose we will be like them one day."

"Providing the gods see fit we both live long enough to."

Before he could chastise his cousin's pessimism, Atemu was stopped prematurely by the call of his own name. He quickly turned back around. "Yes Father?"

The warmth of Akunamukanon's smile radiated from him as though powered by the sun god himself. He placed a large, calloused hand on his son's slighter shoulder. "Atemu, you have grown into a good prince and a promising pharaoh. One day I know you will rule over Kehmet both wisely and honorably. So," he rose and pulled Atemu up alongside him, his voice growing louder as a hush immediately fell over the entire hall, all eyes on Pharaoh. "It is with with great pride that I appoint Prince Atemu as Vizier of the North on the eve of his birth festival! Now let the celebration continue!"

There was a great roar of applause and cheers that lasted for a few long minutes, until, with a look from the pharaoh, once again the music started as the royal pair settled back into their seats.

"Atemu," the prince looked up at his father, eyes still wide and slightly slack-jawed, "your mother would also be very proud of you."

"Thank you Father," Atemu smiled for a moment before his eyes furrowed slightly with determination, "I promise I will not let you down."

"I trust you not to," Akunamukanon once again rested a warm hand on his son's shoulder and favored him with an equally loving smile. "Enjoy your celebration Atemu, but before you do I believe your uncle also has a special gift."

The prince's eyes took on a curious light as he turned his full attention onto his uncle. "Really, Uncle? I shall be waiting anxiously until it is revealed to me."

Even in the midst of the massive celebration Ahknadin's supposed smile seemed a rather grim sneer, stretched too tightly and awkwardly on his worn, leathery features. He captured his nephew's gaze and held it with the mysterious power of a cat's lazy contemplation, swishing its tail to and fro. "Well, dearest nephew of mine, it would be an offense to Ma'at if I were to upset your robust spirits on such a splendid day as this one." Ahknadin stood swiftly and called in a great, rough voice. "My Great Pharaoh, may I be the next to present Prince Atemu with my humblest of offerings to him in his great honor?"

Akunamukanon gave the smallest of smiles and nodded. "You may High Priest Ahknadin."

The great pharaoh turned his head to the side and caught Kahotep's ever watchful eye where he sat knelt on the ground, below the platform the royals and council sat. The servant bowed flat against the ground before standing and exiting the grand chamber to a passage currently obscured by a bright gold curtain.

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><p>Finally, from behind the shroud that blocked his view Yuugi heard the call. "My Great Pharaoh, may I be the next to present Prince Atemu with my humblest of offerings to him in his great honor?" At once his fluttering heartbeat began to pound in his chest and his breathing came in short pants. He drew in a deep breath, erratically dispelled as soon as Kahotep appeared through the final barrier between himself and the prince of Kehmet.<p>

Kahotep stood erect before him and spoke plainly. "Come Yuugi, follow me."

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><p>Atemu's hands gripped the arms of his chair as he leaned forward, his eyes keenly watching the passageway. First the silken edges twitched and then were pushed aside by a slight, tan hand through which a familiarly stoic face appeared before him.<p>

What followed, though, was something refreshingly exotic.

With his head slightly bent, what appeared to be a boy followed Kahotep before the raised platform on which the pharaoh's banquet table stood. Though his view of the boy's face was ruined by his head covering he noticed the way it bobbed up and down almost imperceptibly as this mysterious figure took in his new surroundings; Atemu's eyes flickered about the room too, swelling with pride as he imagined the spectacle from the slave's perspective.

The pair stopped several feet away from the platform, too far for Atemu to get a good look at anything other than the boy's hands, clasped so tightly together in front of him they appeared whiter than the tunic hiding him. As soon as they halted Kahotep's hand seemed to brush the cuff of the boy's long linen sleeve and he quickly dropped to the floor in a complete bow, forehead to the ground and his arms outstretched before him.

"I would like to present you with one of my best servants for your own personal use Prince Atemu."

"This is Yuugi, Atemu," Akunamukanon added lowly. "He has been training under Kahotep. With your new responsibilities it would be best for you to have one particular servant by your side; one you can trust above all others.

Atemu pulled his eyes from the prostrate boy to his father. "Yes Father." He shifted his gaze to his still standing uncle and smiled. "Thank you Uncle, I will accept your gift."

Akunamukanon's voice rose beside Atemu as his uncle settled back into his seat. "Brother, I must thank you again for your gift. It must have been hard to part with servant so promising as Yuugi."

Perhaps Atemu imagined it, but he could have sworn there was a tightness in his uncle's response, some emotion he strained to keep silent under his cool words. "I would give none but the best to Prince Atemu, Pharaoh. I am only glad that he has found a station truly befitting him."

"Your services for Kehmet continue to-" Atemu let the niceties fade into the background and turned his full attention back his primary source of interest, currently huddled upon the floor.

Kahotep had crouched down, and placed a hand on the servant's shoulder. The servant pulled himself to his knees and began to stand upright.

Atemu watched all the while. Just as he stood there was a moment where the boy seemed to forget himself and his head rose up with the rest of his body. Suddenly Atemu was not staring down white linen cloth, but into an enormous pair of eyes colored the shade of the darkest lotus flower.

And suddenly he was immersed in them, trying to find the light in the darkness that was sucking him in.

Then, before he could seek the end, those eyes averted themselves and the boy kept his head even lower than before as he trailed behind Kahotep to the side of the platform, where he sat and bent forward so greatly that he appeared to be only an oddly shaped pile of linen upon the floor.

Atemu reluctantly let the figure slip away from his field of vision and raised his wine cup to his lips. He replayed the small fragment of the boy's face in his mind's eye, too wrapped in his own thoughts to catch the subtle glances his cousin passed between himself and the hunched servant boy.

Once again the music picked up and a set of lively dancers took over the center of the great hall, each twirling long silk ribbons as they danced. The prince emptied his cup of wine and placed it back on the table, only to drink form it again after its contents were swiftly replenished. He let his attention, and his thoughts, drift from that of the pale newcomer to the calamity around him, eyes and ears drinking in the entertainment while his belly was filled to excess with sweet meat and wine.

And then, almost as quickly as he had been swallowed up by them, Atemu let the resonating image of those dark eyes vanish from the forefront of his mind, letting them float into the background of memory.

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><p><strong>Thank you again for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you soon! Reviews are much appreciated.<strong>

***Yuugi is not supposed to be Greek btw, but he's fair skinned (Greeks would have been compared to Egyptians, at least according to the Ancient Egyptian version of Cinderella) so that's why the guy assumed he was Greek**

***Ma'at is the goddess of justice who weighs your heart (where the soul is located) and on her scales (think the sennen scales) when you die to determine your fate.**

***Vizier- apparently there were several princes who were also viziers before they became pharaoh (like a stepping stone/preparation?). There was one vizier for the north and one for the south, they were in charge of a lot of day to day things.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Sorry for the 2 day delay...I was sick. Okay, some more action(?) in this chap...so the action only keeps going from here! This chapter is not really filler, but kind of a bridge chapter so yeah. Also, I don't own Yu Gi Oh!**

**And guys thank you for reading and thanks for the reviews! I really appreciate them, we're currently at 39 and I would appreciate more too. I have to say I was disappointed with the lack of reviews last chapter, b/c I never know then if ppl are enjoying it less generally speaking...so yeah. Anyways, I appreciate your reviews guys and I hope you enjoy this.**

**Guest: (since I can't pm thank you) Thank you for the review! I'm glad you liked the first meeting! Hopefully this is a good follow up!**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 8<strong>

**_"The Loosed Tongue and the Half-Moon"_**

Knelt on the ground, with his back and head bent over, Yuugi waited, and waited, for the celebrating to be finished.

His heart was racing and yet he could not have been more bored.

He kept his chin tucked in, low enough to make certain that the hooded shape of fabric on his head curtained his face, but still, every so often he could feel the heat of a piercing stare like a smoldering coal on his skin.

While his gaze was on the ground he could still see not the alabaster stone floor, but the eyes of the prince, his master, searing into him, trying to peel back the layers of his body to stare directly at his very heart and mind, his soul, his secrets. This must have been the true power of one born as the Living Horus, a direct connection to the gods that gave him powers no mortal could ever dare hope for. And this was the power under which he was to spend the rest of his days serving.

Tremors engulfed his small body.

How could he serve such a man? How could he, little clumsy, foreign Yuugi, wait everyday on a man whose quickest of glances delved so deeply? While the celebration paraded on worries mounted ever higher in Yuugi's mind.

Time passed slowly; without food and with the humid warmth, rhythmic music, and the increasingly heavy perfume of incense, Yuugi found himself slowly growing dopey and dull; his body threatened to slump completely to the ground in a lazy stupor. It was his mentor beside him who saved him from making such a grievous error.

A pinch on the underside of his bare foot was enough to startle Yuugi to a more alert state, almost too alert, and he kept his head from raising and eyes looking wildly about only by Kahotep's voice, which came in a quick, whispered, command.

"Yuugi," he spoke without looking, without even appearing to be speaking at all. Yuugi ducked his head lower to, hopefully, convey a similar appearance.

"The prince is readying to retire from the party. Follow ten steps behind him. Be silent. Keep your head down but watch him as well. He seems quite full of wine; make certain he makes it to his chambers safely. Do not do a single thing unless he directs you. Wait til he has climbed into bed and shut his eyes and, unless he says otherwise, go directly to the lower chambers. Wake early and wait by his door until he rises. Always bow to the ground when you see him coming. Do you understand?"

"Yes Kahotep," he whispered back, looking just above the floor line.

"Good boy, now go."

Yuugi rose swiftly, too much so, nearly faltering when he belatedly realized there was little sensation in his legs. By the edge of the room, walking along the wall in the shadows was the prince, discretely making his exit from the slowly dying festivities. Without even a look behind him the young man slipped from the room to some unknown passage, disappearing from sight into the darkness.

The momentarily lame servant hobbled along after the prince, keeping his head down only to gracelessly lift it slightly every few steps, trying to avoid the paths of both servants and guests as he desperately tried to keep up with his new master.

It was with a sigh of relief that Yuugi finally made his way free from the main chamber, stumbling finally into a large, unfamiliar open-air path. Anxiety rose again when he heard no footsteps. Throwing caution aside he raised his head fully, eagerly searching for his sly master.

To the right and to the left; both ends appeared empty. This hall seemed to have been deserted even by guards, but the prince had gone this way, he was certain of it. Yuugi chewed at his mistreated lip again.

"Which way could he have gone?" He looked back and forth again down either ends of the hall. Time was running out if he wanted to find the prince before he got into trouble. "Right or left? Which way is the prince's bedroom?"

To the left would overlook the Nile where its shores glimmered nearby beyond the palace walls, to the right would overlook the cool desert landscape beyond the lush palace surroundings. Which one would be more appropriate for a prince?

"Left." With a nod of affirmation to himself he took off down the open hall, praying to the gods and goddesses he remembered that his senseless decision would not lead him down the wrong path. The boy lifted his tunic and started to run down the all, trying to keep as quiet as possible without losing speed, lest his footsteps bring him unwanted attention.

Above the softened echoes of the slowing party a contented sigh came just so faintly to Yuugi's ears, very near by. Yuugi stopped short and stood still, his tunic in his sweaty palms and his nostrils flaring as he tried to regain his breath.

"Such a night," the bodiless voice spoke, emanating from behind a giant stone column that cleverly concealed its companion.

And who was this person speaking to? Had Yuugi perhaps unwittingly stumbled upon his master while he was enjoying someone's company? If that was the case, would it be best to stay away?

A life previously devoted to avoiding his master at all costs had given Yuugi little preparation for such circumstances and, in his panic, the words of Kahotep had all but disintegrated entirely in his mind.

"Hm, I suppose I should have left that last glass of wine alone," the words ran together a little, ending with a gentle chuckle.

The slur was new, but Yuugi was certain he recognized the voice, sure that he had heard it several times this evening. Especially when he had bowed before it and been accepted as its owner's gift.

Without another's words to join his it seemed safe to assume the prince was indeed alone, but still the servant-child did not move. With his tunic still in his clutches Yuugi hesitated there, his mind drowning in questions.

Should he move forward and let the prince know that his servant had faithfully followed him? But the prince had obviously tried to slip away unnoticed. Was he supposed to stay back in case the prince did not want him to follow? But in that case how would the prince know that he was here in case he was needed?

The sound of leather soles rubbing against the stone and another short, contented sigh came to Yuugi's ears. One royal foot made an appearance just at the edge of his sight of the stone column, illuminated by the moonlight as it poured in the open space.

An idea came cautiously to mind; he could be sly and sneaky, perhaps. Maybe he could act so that it would be possible to avoid any chance of punishment and disfavor by being neither seen nor unseen.

Well then, it was decided, that was what he would do. He would edge forward just enough for the prince to be able to see him in the moonlight if he wanted to, but far away and unobtrusive enough to be ignored as well.

Yuugi raised one foot and stepped forward only to find his feet faltering again. All at once the words of Ahknadin rang in his ears; his stupid, foolish, clumsy nature was going to be the end of him. In only a moment he would fall gracelessly, obtrusively at the feet of his master and ruin any good impression and good fortune he had left. Any esteem by his master would be lost, all of Kahotep's good words and deeds would be completely negated.

No, he would not let it! He would not disappoint Kahotep or the prince!

Yuugi caught himself from tumbling to the ground only to land several loud, slapping steps on the stone floor, piercing the calm of this outdoor sanctuary. No sooner did his feet fall then there was the sound of slippers quickly moving and a weapon being unsheathed.

"Who is there?" The voice had lost its softness, replaced by the hard, commanding voice that came with regal lineage.

Too soon for Yuugi to bow he found himself being stared down by the future pharaoh of all Kehmet, his shoulders back and a short curved blade that gleamed as it caught the moonlight in his firm grip, his features hidden by the glow of the moon behind him.

"Come into the light."

His call left no alternative. Yuugi stepped forward into the moonlight and toward the illuminated prince with his head bowed. He could only pray the gesture would be enough to make up for his folly.

"Oh, it is just you then." Once again the voice was softer, nonchalant, and subtly laced with the symptoms of overindulgence. The sound of the blade being put back in its scabbard rang in the night and Yuugi nearly sighed aloud with relief. "I suppose I will have to become used to you following me then, since Father thinks it a good idea." There was a lazy pause. "Hm, come here."

Yuugi took tiny steps forward, bowing more and more with each step until he was almost bent out at the waist. When the prince's slippers met his eyes not more than three steps from where he stood he stopped and waited.

"So, you were one of Uncle's servants."

Yuugi kept himself bowed and silent. It was difficult to tell if he was actually being asked; luckily his new master seemed to be talking more to himself than his attendant and did not demand an answer. Out of the corner of his eye Yuugi saw the long shadow of the prince, his fists on his hips.

"Lift your head."

Very slowly Yuugi did as he was told, his lower lip still caught in his teeth, clenched so tightly he thought it might break and bleed at any moment. Hesitantly he rose all the way up, pausing as he lifted his head, keeping his chin tucked and eyes cast down. Without warning something warm and rough held Yuugi's jaw.

"Come on, I said 'lift your head'. I want to see you."

Yuugi let his chin be pulled up and kept his eyes to the left, avoiding the prince's face and trying to remain calm. So rarely had he been so close to any man, and past experience had taught him very well that such intimate touches from a master did not lead to pleasant outcomes. His heart continued to beat painfully in his constricted chest.

The prince, however, was either unaware or uncaring of his impact on the young servant. He moved his face close enough for Yuugi to smell the food and wine on his breath. He turned Yuugi's head in both directions under the light of the half moon. "How strange," he commented lowly. "Look at me."

With the utmost reluctance Yuugi moved his gaze slowly to the prince, not daring to disobey. First his eyes touched on the man's calloused hand, then his muscled arm, then his strong jaw and pointed chin and slender nose, and then finally, at last, into those eyes he dreaded seeing again.

In that moment Yuugi thanked his good fortune and the will of the gods that the prince had thoroughly enjoyed his birthday celebration; though his slightly squinted eyes were still powerful, they now danced about here and there, slightly murky and out of focus while he studied Yuugi. It might, however, been this same factor that vexed his new master, for after a few moments of, attempted, intense study the prince moved his hand back with a grunt of dissatisfaction.

"I swore..." the prince muttered. With a shake he raised his head with a smile. "You are quite a strange looking, boy. So pale, and your eyes...how can you see in the sun with such wide eyes?" This time the prince continued to watch him silently, waiting for the answer.

This was not a moment Yuugi had been prepared for. "Y-your Highness, I-"

All words were stolen from Yuugi's breath when the prince lifted his hands in his own and pulled them further under the moonlight, taking Yuugi a few steps back with him.

"Well I suppose you do not see much sun," he laughed and dropped his servant's hands, his poor servant who was trying with all his might not to let the stutters he was barely suppressing echo from his mouth. "Father said your name was Yuugi, right? An odd name...it suits you. You must be a subject of my father's generosity. Father has an open heart when it comes to oddities; that is why he has Kahotep."

The prince turned back to the ledge just beyond the row of stone columns, faltering once in his steps as he called aloud. "Father says the gods and goddesses created peculiarities in order to make us wiser, and each one provides us with the opportunity of a new lesson. Nothing at all like Uncle, Uncle Ahknadin thinks that anything strange is dangerous." He lowered his voice, but not low enough for Yuugi to miss, "Of course those words come from him of all people."

With one hand on the ledge he turned back and captured Yuugi's stare. "He must have hated you." The prince's voice was vaguely solemn and dimly contemplative.

A wind reached where they stood and Yuugi shivered in his tunic. He looked up to watch the prince, who stood like a statue against the breeze, calm and powerful as his wild hair and clothes were ruffled under the moonlight.

"Come here."

Without a thought Yuugi's legs carried him to the ledge, his master's words like a temptress's song. Yuugi stopped two steps behind the prince, who, seeing his stalled servant, pat the ledge with his hand, where the rings on his fingers made as hard _clack_ against the surface.

"Up here Yuugi. It is just us, I will not hurt you."

Flames rose in Yuugi's fair face and he looked to his feet as he stepped up next to his master. Had he dared to he would have shook at their proximity, taken a step away to soothe the heartbeat pulsing in his ears and the trembling creeping under his skin, but he did not. He even forced himself to refrain from pulling his lip between his teeth, keeping them pursed tightly together instead.

This was most certainly far closer than he should be allowed to stand next to a master of any kind, let alone a prince. Regardless of what his orders had been Yuugi was sure that Kahotep would not have approved of the situation in the slightest.

"Look." Reluctantly Yuugi did just as he had been told.

The prince swept a hand along the dark landscape, illuminated only by the light of a half moon.

"Do you see that Yuugi?" he murmured reverently, "Everything you can see is our domain. Everywhere your eyes can touch is Kehmet."

Yuugi looked across the vast stretch of land from the right where the moonlight turned the desert sands into dunes of blue and white, to the left where he could see the glimmering waters of the Nile and its lush valley as it crept up to the palace walls.

He supposed he should say something, but what? What could he say that would be sufficient for the prince's adoration of his homeland? Would he offend him if he did not offer a proper response?

At his sides Yuugi's fists curled within the long sleeves of his robes. "It-, Y-your Highness, I-," despite his efforts to keep his body from shaking, his voice did nothing to hide his fear.

Two strong, hot hands closed fast around Yuugi's forearms and raised them so that he could see his hands before his face; with sleeves pooling above the hands that held him tight his own shaking hands were revealed in the night, pure white under the moon.

"Do not be afraid. I will not hurt you."

It must have been all the drink and food in his master's body, but when Yuugi felt his eyes move from his hands to the voice that spoke to him he saw something unbelievable. The prince's eyes were as dark as the wine he had drunk, not piercing but like deceptively shallow shores, tempting him with entry to unexpectedly land him in deep waters. The prince's grip tightened, his fingers pressing against the marks made before by his own uncle. Yuugi flinched under the pressure against the sensitive flesh.

Disbelief and fear must have been what the prince mistook for his pain, because his hands bore on the servant more fervently, and he pulled Yuugi so that their bodies were almost touching, their faces very close to one another as he loomed a few inches above his servant.

They stood so close that when the prince spoke their breath mingled. "I will not hurt you. Believe me."

It was not a request, but a flat command. Something beyond his sworn oath of duty and allegiance to this new master compelled Yuugi to obey. A riptide of red was enveloping his senses; had he had even a drop of wine he would have sworn it was the drink clouding his mind, and not the mere glance of a man, a man he called "Master. Yes Your Highness, I believe you."

The prince dropped his hands and stepped back; he turned and rested against the ledge, looking out over the dark Kehmet horizon, as though Yuugi were not there and the last few moments had been but a passing dream. Yuugi himself watched the prince in a stupor, questioning himself as to whether what had just happened had been an instance of delirium, his mind addled by too much excitement on too little food and sleep. He nearly opened his mouth to pose the question aloud and then snapped it shut.

Truly he must be delirious to almost address his master with such a question. It would be better to focus his attention on keeping his voice silent and his eyes down before he risked himself any further trouble.

Then through the night a voice loudly called out. From the sound Yuugi could only guess they were just exiting the great hall as he had done to follow the prince.

"Where do you think His Highness has gone?" One man asked.

"Perhaps we could ask a guard, or a member of Pharaoh's council," another slurred.

"Yes, Ahmose," a third man laughed. "A truly splendid idea. It is so brilliant though, that you should do it alone and take the credit. Masud and I will have to devise another way to find him, no need to give our names."

The prince stood suddenly and cursed. "I have been Vizier since supper and already they follow me like a bitch's whelps." He looked back to Yuugi. "Follow close to my side; if they see you we are both caught. And be quiet."

The prince took off further left, keeping along the ledge behind the camouflage of stone columns. As silently as he could manage Yuugi came hastily behind him, the folds of his tunic once again clasped in his fingers. Yuugi followed the prince all the way down the ledge until they reached a corner, and turned a sharp left. The prince's scurry progressed to a full run, forcing his servant to follow suit. Yuugi scrambled after, his breath sharp and painful. They ran long after the bemused voices of the prince's attempted audience had faded in the night air.

Yuugi followed the prince's few twists and turns, aware only of the young man he watched sprinting down hallways, a dim figure in the darkness that was disrupted only by the sporadic flicker of torchlight. When finally Yuugi heard the faint sound of the prince's slowing steps he was long out of breath and quiet tired; sweat was fairly dripping down his head as well as within his tunic. Yuugi slowed too as he approached the prince, stopping a body's length away from him.

A low, mirthful laugh was emanating from the prince, his own breathing slightly labored. "That was fun; I am glad you kept up, I would hate to lose you so quickly." The prince placed his hand on the wall beside them, on a set of doors Yuugi had not realized was there; he pushed one door ajar slightly, the glow of lit lamps pouring into the dark hallway and onto his face, lit with his excitement.

The prince looked over to Yuugi, a cocky smile illuminated in the darkness. "Well servant, you have done well on your first evening. You are dismissed for tonight." And with only a vague wave of his hand the prince sauntered into his room and closed the door behind him, leaving Yuugi alone in the darkness.

Yuugi turned around and slowly retraced his steps back the way they had run. It was late and cooler now; no one stood in the open path and in the banquet hall only servants remained, cleaning the remnants of the festivities.

Yuugi passed them quietly, following the exact path he had walked this morning all the way to the servants quarters, where his equally exhausted counterparts silently moved about or soundly slept the late hours away.

Yuugi kept his head down as he made his way to the space he had cleared for himself, a task strangely made easier without the prince in his presence. He found his bedding undisturbed behind the twin vats, safe from any prying eyes.

He laid down on the ground and slipped into his bedding. No sooner had his head come to rest than the precious numbness that had guarded his mind was sucked out of him; without it he was left shivering in spite of the heat he felt crawling from his heart to every finger and toe, leaving his head strangely empty for all the thoughts that flew about it.

In one night, just one night, how many rules had he already broken? How many of Kahotep's words had been disregarded? How many things had he done already that warranted punishment?

And what about the prince? How had he been like anything Yuugi had been prepared to expect?...Though he did suspect that wine had had more than a little to do with the night's events. And so another question entreated his worrying mind; what was the prince really like? Was that his true personality he had seen tonight or would a clearer head drastically change him?

If the latter was the case, would the prince be angry with him for what had happened tonight?

And how could he be expected to survive any of the prince's stares when they became focused again?

Restlessly Yuugi rolled onto his side and in the darkness he saw the prince's smile. A small one to match it grew on his own face. Underneath the arrogance he had seen kindness there, gentleness; despite whatever may happen tomorrow he would not forget the good-nature that he had witnessed in his master. Even if the following morning brought him pain or punishment tonight had been far more pleasing than he could have imagined.

"_You have done well tonight."_

His first praise. The very thought of those freely given words again stoked the heat in his chest to a small flame. He would do what it took to earn more kind words, more smiles. Against the darkness his eyes slid shut as he drifted off, imagining his master asleep in bed, a content smile resting beautifully on his sharp features.

Far from the fantasy of his attendant, in another place close by but a world away, another boy laid in his own bed tangled in his soft bedding, struggling in the long, lonely night hours while his servant peacefully slumbered.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! I really appreciate your reviews!<strong>


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